Harry Potter: Enigma at Work
by BlueMagikMarker
Summary: Abandoned. Harry's life changes when he's asked to join the Unspeakables. Forget Hogwarts! Follow Harry as he takes his destiny into his own hands with the help of the secret organization. What is Voldemort planning... and what's this about the Quibbler?
1. Who Are You?

Disclaimer: Blah blah blah... I don't own anything, poor me... blah blah blah... J.K. Rowling beat me to it. I swear... blah blllaaaahhhhh... you get the point?

Author's Note: Ok, now that that crap is done with. I just started writing this the other day... actually I started with some scene that will probably end up somewhere in the middle of the fic. If I ever get that far. I hope to finish this thing but don't be surprised if the updates are few and far between. If I decide it's not worth finishing I'll be sure to let you know. If my story resembles any other fic that you've read then let me know 'cause I'd like to read it. I know the idea isn't really new but I honestly haven't read anything like what I hope this'll turn out to be. I don't plan on having any ships, ummm I know that puts some people off but I'm really hopeless at relationships in real life and I'm pretty sure that transfers over to what I write.

Oh, one more thing... I know it isn't that long, but I'm new to writing so give me a break. (I at least tried to make it respectable, unlike those 800 word chapters Ive seen elsewhere)

* * *

Harry sighed.

Blinked.

Scratched his cheek, it had been itching slightly for the last couple of minutes.

Just to mix things up a little, he blinked again before sighing.

After the recent loss of his Godfather, Harry had little motivation to do anything. He knew it wasn't really his fault that Sirius had died, but that didn't stop him from regretting his actions. Really, he just wished he had Sirius back. Even if they hadn't known each other very well, it was nice to know that you would always have someone to fall back on, someone who cared about you.

Harry sighed again.

Right now he was just biding his time. Dumbledore said he needed to stay in the house and that was fine with him, he didn't really want to see anyone right now anyway. At least his relatives were back to ignoring him after the Order's threat at King's Cross. That left him with little to no contact with the outside world. As long as he sent a letter to the Order every couple of days he could sit and brood in his little room all he liked. There wasn't much else to do anyway.

Harry closed his eyes.

The prophecy. It was weighing heavily on his mind. After he was done grieving over his Godfather's death he would have to buckle down, become the perfect little soldier. He didn't really care what they did to him, what they fashioned him into; all he wanted to do was keep his friends safe.

His friends.

He had always relied on them. Not necessarily for their adventures, he'd done much on his own, but for their friendship. They stuck by him when it counted, believed in him, gave him hope. He would let Dumbledore use him in his little games if it would keep everyone else safe. His life had never been his own anyway.

Harry rubbed his moist eyes with his fist.

He paused suddenly, as he was wiping his eye. The door. It had just flashed through his mind again. Briefly. It was the door leading to the Department of Mysteries, deep in the Ministry of Magic. No, there was nothing he could do for Sirius, the veil lead only to death. His godfather was gone. So why was that particular door still on his mind?

His stomach rumbled…

He couldn't remember the last time he'd had anything to eat, that couldn't be good for him. He figured that he'd be of little use to the wizarding world dead and resignedly made his way downstairs. Being the middle of the day, his uncle wouldn't be home so he may have a chance at a snack before his aunt chased him from the kitchen (if his aunt was home of course). He may get lucky and she'd be out on errands or some other such thing. He might get extremely lucky and find that they'd all moved far, far away and forgotten to take him with them.

Harry smiled a bit at his last thought.

He noticed that the house did seem very quiet. By now he was pretty sure that nobody was home, years of evading his relatives had given him an innate sixth sense regarding their whereabouts. It was no big loss though, he'd be able to take as much food as he'd like and nobody was around to stop him. Harry calmly made his way into the empty kitchen and started pulling things out of the fridge; he was a lot hungrier than he'd originally thought so his snack was only such in the sense that it was what his cousin Dudley may consider a snack.

Appetite sated and belly bulging off of his skinny frame, Harry sat back and considered his position. He was apparently alone in his relatives house and hadn't been bothered in days to do chores or just because his cousin felt like annoying him. It wasn't normal. He stood and cleaned up his mess before going through the living room and outside. There were at least four or five newspapers in a neat little stack by the door. It wasn't like the Dursleys to disregard the paper. Merlin forbid the neighbors see a newspaper on the front stoop. What was the world coming to?

He stepped back inside and closed the door.

The Dursleys had been gone for at least four days and hadn't even bothered to tell him they were leaving. His earlier joke seemed a lot funnier now for some reason. It was a sad thing however, that he had the whole house to himself, he had unlimited freedom to do whatever he pleased and all he wanted to do was go up to his room and sleep off his snack. He'd never felt at home in this house and being out of his little sanctuary for such a long time was strange for him.

And he was still depressed, just a little.

The silence was comforting though.

He stared at the wall for a while before going to sleep. It had been an eventful day for him; he'd actually ventured downstairs. The Dursleys' absence had done loads for his stress however. He felt much more relaxed than he had at the end of term. Sirius was still fresh in his mind, but he was more of a happy memory now. No, what really bothered him was the prophecy. Yet, here in his little room with no one around it seemed distant. He thought it over for a few days (nonstop it seems) and had decided to just go with it. He'd let it all play out and roll with the punches, he was good at that now, still being alive and all.

Harry opened his eyes… and fell off his bed in shock!

There was dark cloaked person standing in the corner of his room! So much for being relaxed!

He stayed crouched on the other side of his bed; his wand was across the room. He needed his wand. He couldn't fight without it.

And suddenly it was in his hand!

He looked at it in confusion before letting his mind get back on track.

Harry jumped up quickly and dove over… err… halfway over his bed towards the stranger in his room before he suddenly stopped in mid air. The cloaked figure chuckled quietly while Harry tried furiously to think of a way out of this. He was frozen, he couldn't even open his mouth to let loose a curse on the figure. Strangely, the door to the Department of Mysteries crossed his mind again…

The man started walking over to him, though it was only a short distance in the small room, and he was clapping…

Sweat rolled down from his brow and dripped off his chin as he strained, fighting the curse.

"Good, good, Mr. Potter. But please, settle down. I'm not here to hurt you." The man spoke in a deep voice as he pulled back his hood to reveal his sharply featured face. High cheekbones, hooked nose, graying hair, he would have reminded Harry of Snape were it not for the lack of grease in said hair and the patented sneer.

Harry seriously tried to calm his breathing, but being frozen in mid-air with no way to defend yourself tends to be a little uncomfortable.

"I'm going to let you down now. Please don't try to attack me, I'm only here to talk with you." The man said quickly upon noticing Harry's discomfort, the furniture rattling all over the room was probably a dead give away. He pointed his wand at the young man again and let him plop down onto the bed unceremoniously.

When Harry looked up he saw that the mysterious man had already conjured up a comfortable looking chair and was apparently waiting to be addressed. A million questions passed trough Harry's head but all that came out of his mouth was the expected, "who are you?"

"I cannot tell you right now, you will have to trust me for a short while. Again, I promise that I'm not here to harm you in any way"

Harry nodded at the reply and eyed the man warily; of course he wouldn't trust him, that was asking too much. With his wand still trained on the intruder he asked the next most pressing question, "What do you want?"

"I want you to help me, and in return I may be able to help you."

Harry just gaped at the man's evasiveness; the response still didn't give him any idea of what this person wanted.

He obviously interpreted Harry's silence correctly as he quickly continued where he left off. "You see, Harry, there exists an entity that acts both inside and outside of Ministry law that could make use of your unique talents. It is not so much an unknown organization. More correctly it is not… spoken… of."

Realization dawned on Harry's face. "You're an Unspeakable," he whispered out fiercely, unable to keep the excitement out of his voice.

"I am," the man said simply.

"And y- you want me to be one too?"

The man nodded

Harry's face scrunched up in confusion. Why did this guy want him to join an elite group of wizards and witches that did unknown research and any number of other things, he wasn't even a sixth year yet for Merlin's sake! What exactly did this guy expect him to be able to do that the highly trained Unspeakables couldn't already accomplish? He wouldn't answer until he knew more; he had no idea what this man really wanted him to do. The fact that the Unspeakables wanted to recruit him, however, was very exciting.

"Why?" Harry's brain couldn't come up with anything else at the moment.

The man sighed, "There are many reasons Harry. Though most of all, I would have to say that I have seen in you the potential to do great things for the wizarding world." The older man propped his chin on his hand as he leaned forward slightly, as if he was examining the boy before him. "You have great power, Harry, you have strength and determination, you have intelligence, and you are driven to help others. These are some of the qualities we look for in those we wish to recruit. Your battle in the Department of Mysteries did not go unseen Harry."

"…That- that wasn't anything special. I mean we were all nearly killed! And I wasn't there alone either. I had help. You can't just pop into my room and expect me to go run off to 'who knows where' with you. I still don't even know what you want from me!" Harry was getting tired of this guy's vague answers; he got enough of those from Dumbledore.

The man winced as Harry's angry outburst nearly caused his chair to topple over. "Mr. Potter, please calm down, I will answer all of your questions in time," he stated cautiously.

"Excuse me for being a little impatient, but you're the one who showed up unannounced!" Harry nearly screamed, voice laden with sarcasm.

Again, the man winced, "You're right, allow me to address your last question. The truth is that I don't know where you would best fit in. You would do well in any of the departments. You are intelligent enough to join a research team and your muggle upbringing would allow you to come up with solutions that may be foreign to those who grew up in the wizarding world. You are strong enough to fight in outright battles, think well enough on the go to run specialized missions; you could even help develop new spells with the right training. Do you see it now, Mr. Potter, you have the potential to do anything and you are wasting it at that school." The man was flushed and breathing heavily he looked almost giddy, Harry thought that he must really believe those things he'd said.

Harry had sobered up during the man's speech; he was actually being offered a position with the Unspeakables, "can you show me?" he asked quietly. He figured that if it was one of Voldemort's Death Eaters he'd have been killed long ago… plus he was really bored and a trip to the Department of Mysteries sounded fun.

The older man nodded once before getting up from his chair and vanishing it. He turned around and held out a coin that resembled a galleon. "This is a portkey that will take us to the Department of Mysteries, I assume you wish to see what you may be getting in to before giving me an answer," the man stated in a confident and professional voice, as if he'd done this countless times.

Harry nodded and nervously reached out to place a finger on the coin.

The man spoke up again, "very well," and they were gone.


	2. Department of Mysteries Pt 1

Disclaimer: If I owned any of this... then I wouldn't need to write a disclaimer at the start of every chapter...

Author's Note: Don't expect me to update this quickly very often... I just happened to be really bored and my first ever reviews inspired me to write. I hope you enjoy it though...

* * *

They appeared an instant later in the middle of a rather large, yet empty, room. It was in fact probably both the largest and most empty room Harry had ever been in, let alone seen. The largeness of the room was amplified by the emptiness of it, making it seem even larger than it actually was. To Harry, who had lived in a cupboard for 10 years of his life, it seemed even larger still. Yet, despite the utter hugeness of the room, it was rather boring, being empty and all.

Harry was startled out of his attempt to mentally estimate the approximate size of the room when the unnamed Unspeakable spoke, "Yes, it is a rather large room. We use it to simulate scenarios for our cooperative task force and sometimes we use it to mix highly volatile potions, just to be safe…" Harry could hardly imagine the destructive force a potion must have for in to require mixing in this room, but this was the Department of Mysteries after all. "Before we continue I need to have your oath of secrecy, most of what goes on down here is highly classified and I would probably be forced to either kill or _oblivate_ you into insanity if anything got out."

Harry gulped, "yeah, umm… what do I need to say?" He said shakily.

"Oh, well… I'll just give you an example then shall I?" The Unspeakable cleared his throat and stiffened his posture, reminding Harry of Percy Weasly, "I, errr… whatever my name is… do herby swear upon my life and magic that I will not, by any voluntary means, expose the secrets held within the Department of Mysteries to the general public… You must also have your wand tip resting over your heart for these words to be binding."

Harry nodded and repeated what the older man had said; a bright flash of light from his wand followed the completion of the oath.

"There, that's done. If you would follow me, I will show you just what goes on around here. If you have any questions I'll try to answer them… but I really don't understand a lot of what we do either." The Unspeakable looked as if his last statement caused considerable physical pain judging from his expression.

After walking for a few minutes they finally reached a door. Harry's anxiousness had grown with each step… so he was fairly excited to see what was on the other side at this point.

The door began opening slowly, a soft light bathing the frame as it moved. The large room seemed to blur out of existence as Harry's attention was solely focused on the door and what may lay behind it. The endless possibilities began flying through his mind at an alarming rate… a dragon, an experimental prototype broom, an elite wizard assassination team, TWO dragons, a UFO, a black hole, an empty hallway, err… an empty hallway? Harry would never admit it, but he had almost fainted at the shock of seeing an empty hallway.

After catching his breath he looked up at his companion curiously, "umm… so where are all the mysteries?"

The Unspeakable looked slightly annoyed at this, "well, we've only gone through one door haven't we? What did you expect… dragons or something?"

"Well…" Harry trailed off and let his silence speak for itself as his face flushed in embarrassment.

The older man sighed, "The dragons are kept in the lower levels Mr. Potter, they are much too dangerous to keep up here."

Harry couldn't keep the shock off of his face, "you mean you really do keep dragons here?" he squeaked out.

They began moving down the hall as the man replied, "Yes, we do keep dragons. Mostly for research, though the training directors have been known to borrow one from time to time. Like to keep the new recruits on their toes and all." He smiled a bit in apparent reminiscence and kept walking. They stopped in front of a rather large double door off to the side of the hallway. On it, in flowing elegant script that went all the way across both doors, it read 'Department of Mysteries'.

As the Unspeakable began opening the door he looked back at Harry with a large smile, "I believe you might find this room to be fairly familiar" And with that, he opened the door to reveal the large circular room that Harry had become all too familiar with at the end of term. Curiously, the door they had just come through looked like just another one of the identical ones lining the wall from this side.

They stopped in the middle of the room; Harry was wondering why he didn't pick a door before they began moving when the walls started doing just that. "Umm… how do you know where to go?" he asked over the rumbling noise.

"Oh, you've seen most of this already, I thought I'd show you where we actually work," the man said loudly. After the walls stopped spinning he bent down and inspected the stone floor, "didn't you wonder why there was nobody here when you last came?"

"I did wonder a bit…"

"Well, this is actually more of a storage area, we put all of our outdated inventions and obsolete equipment in these rooms. Oh, and the prophecies that we've already studied. You know all about those." The unspeakable seemed to have found what he was looking for as he looked up suddenly whilst keeping his wand trained on a certain stone. "The active Department of Mysteries is much more interesting." With that he began tapping a series of bricks with his wand, much like Harry had seen Hagrid do for the entrance to Diagon Alley.

When he finished, it was actually only seven taps or so, the floor around the circumference of the room fractured and sunk down a few inches all at once, a loud cracking sound accompanying it. Then, the floor started to slowly descend. After it reached a certain point light began streaming up from around the edges of the separated floor. The floor was a giant elevator! They were slowly descending into a rather well lit room. It was much more modern looking that the archaic room above, resembling the hallway they'd been in earlier.

When the floor finally settled Harry looked around. They were in another circular room albeit with much less than 12 doors. Each door had a sign next to it that stated what department it was and listed all of the offices found inside. Harry looked around and read off a few of the department names… Research Department… Development… DoM Special Task Force… there were a few others, but they all seemed rather mundane… Management… Liaisons… Custodial…? Well I guess somebody has to do it right? Harry had to laugh as he imagined Mr. Filch as an Unspeakable.

"So Mr. Potter, where would you like to begin this little tour?" The older man was bemused at Harry's baffled expression.

"Uh… der… I guess… which one is coolest?" Harry stumbled over the unexpected question.

"Well, I work in the Research Department… but I always did think the Development Department was much… umm… cooler. They always throw the best parties."

"Parties? Uh... never mind. Let's go to that one then." Harry decided he'd rather not hear about parties thrown by people who had access to the world's most dangerous chemicals to play with, and most likely some that weren't from this world.

Harry walked over to the door and looked at the list of subdivisions and offices. There were some of the things you might normally expect… Spells, Weapons, and Potions. Then there were some that Harry was a bit wary of… Experimental Breeding… Extremely Dangerous Combustibles (Special Authorization Required)… The Unspeakable got Harry's attention and shepherded him through the door quickly before he got re-distracted by the long list of other offices in the department. Once inside Harry saw the first other person… persons that he'd seen since they entered the building. They didn't pay him much attention though; most were walking purposefully between the doors of yet another circular room. They were all wearing either black or white lab robes, not unlike the ones he wore for potions class at Hogwarts. Each also had a little badge pinned to their robes that held information about where they worked in the department. A few gazes did linger on him but none moved to greet him, Harry supposed they'd all seen enough fantastic things working here that his presence didn't have the same effect it had on others.

"We'll hit a few of the larger sub sections and then head over to the Research Department." His companion stated.

They went to the door marked 'Spells' and went in.

This was much more like he'd imagined the Department of Mysteries would be. There was a large sunken in stadium like the Quiddich pitch at Hogwarts… only larger. It was surrounded not by seats though; instead there were separate, terraced levels of offices, each with a long window that stretched the width of it that was looking out into the center area. In the middle of the stadium-like structure there were a few people setting something up on a raised platform. Every now and then somebody would look out one of the office windows before going back to whatever they were doing.

Harry walked up closer to the railing to get a better look at what was going on.

"In this department, as you have probably already guessed, we develop new spells. Anything from a simple _petrificus_ to the complex _patronus_ most likely started here in this room. The creation of new spells is actually a very complex… Uh… we had better get into one of these offices, and quickly." The quick change in attitude, from professional to frightened little schoolgirl, caught Harry's attention... he hadn't really been listening.

Harry looked back at the stage just long enough to see the group of Unspeakables who had been on the stage jumping over a blast wall that was erected around it. Wasting no time, he quickly followed his companion into the nearest open door… and was knocked off his feet as the building shook violently from a large explosion! He could hear heavy objects, which he guessed were pieces of the stage, hitting the thick window behind him. The man who must have worked in this office looked up from his equations at the two intruders before shrugging his shoulders and going back to work. This kind of thing apparently happened all the time.

They quickly finished their tour of the sub department, just in time to be thrown off their feet again as they made it back to the circular room; another large explosion could be heard albeit slightly muffled through the thick walls. The other Unspeakables in the room just rolled their eyes at the two, Harry figured that they must be used to the explosions after working here for so long. Next they visited the potion development area, which although it looked fun, wasn't Harry's strong suit. He got a kick out of some of the various effects the potions were having on the test subjects, many reminded him of the Weasly twins' pranks.

Harry wanted to take a quick peek in the Experimental Breeding Department but there was a bit a parchment tacked to the door declaring it off access until further notice. Harry thought the message was actually pretty funny, 'Department under quarantine until further notice due to unforeseen consequences of infusing common house cats with toxic plant elements', it was written in a hasty scrawl; whoever wrote it was obviously under a lot of stress at the moment. They did go through the weapons subdivision though; many of their projects were based on mixing muggle technology with magic to create new weapons for the DoM Speacial Task Force Department.

The Research Department was boring… in Harry's expert opinion. Hermione would have been in heaven though. They had the largest library in the world, it was like looking at the maze Harry had gone through during the third task of the Triwizard Tournament… only instead of hedges, it was books… millions of them. The offices were actually located near the subject the Unspeakables were studying so that the researchers wouldn't have to trek for miles across the library to find the book they needed.

The main functions of the Research Department were to provide information for the other departments, come up with theories for the Development Department to test, and to record and analyze any new discoveries. Harry wasn't very enthusiastic about it, but his Unspeakable friend worked here and he didn't want to seem rude by appearing uninterested. So he just let the older man spout off useless statistics regarding the number of texts they had and how much space they took up… and how much it all weighed… and the record amount of time someone had been lost in the maze of shelves. The department had actually set up a search and rescue team after somebody had gone missing for a week, he was eventually found in the 'home gardening' section living off of pictures of vegetables he'd ripped from books.

They eventually made their way out of the maze and back to the first circular room.

Now came the department that Harry was most anxious to see…

The DoM Special Task Force Department… that sounded so much cooler than being an auror.


	3. Department of Mysteries Pt 2

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter... then I wouldn't be writing fanfiction.

Author's Note: I know that I said not to get used to it... but I was bored again...

* * *

His Unspeakable friend checked his watch, "We're just in time… I think they've scheduled the scenario room for one of their special teams. I'll just go check and see if we can watch." He opened the door, revealing… surprise, surprise… another circular room. Harry followed him into the debriefing room where there was a group of about six or seven Unspeakables huddled before another, apparently the leader. He was pointing at different spots on the large map that was sitting on a table between them. Harry's companion was over in the corner of the room talking with an important looking Unspeakable… if all of the badges on his robes meant anything.

Interested in what the team was doing, Harry made his way up to the table and listened in…

"…scout team reports that this should be the opportune time to run a stealth mission with little to no resistance. If there are guards on duty, Intel suggests that they will most likely be found in these places," he waved his wand in a sweeping motion across the map and left blinking dots in its wake. The dots were mostly centered on the outside doors, but some were at key stairwells inside the house. It was a very, very large house… Harry might have mistaken it for a hotel if it weren't for the labels on all of the rooms. "We will focus mainly on these areas," the Unspeakable repeated his wand movement, this time making whole rooms light up. "We are looking for any documents that could possibly reveal the Dark Lord's current or past whereabouts… any information that may give us an idea of what rituals the Dark Lord used would also be welcome." Harry went rigid at the mention of Voldemort's alias; these Unspeakables were planning to raid one of his followers' houses. This was the real deal…

Harry's resolve strengthened, if these people were already defying Voldemort, then he could do it too. Sure, he'd faced the monster many times, but never voluntarily. Harry realized that if anybody could help him defeat the Dark Lord it would be the Unspeakables… well, Dumbledore could, but Harry was starting to see free will in a whole new light. It was his decision, was it not? He was going to fight Voldemort, that was a given. He'd killed his parents for Merlin's sake! But Harry would fight him on his terms… he didn't have to follow Dumbledore now that he had this option, and the old man wasn't on his list of favorite people at the moment.

"…This is preferably a stealth mission and we'll be working in pairs. I will assign your objectives at the site. If cover is blown, try to take a prisoner if at all possible… and any incriminating evidence that we could use to finally get this guy. If everything goes to hell, remember rule number one: no mission is as important as the life of yourself or your partner." At this Harry became slightly confused, these guys were only going into a simulation right?

Harry looked back towards the corner of the room where his tour guide had been talking with the important looking Unspeakable… to find them both gone.

There was nobody else in the room except for him and the other Unspeakables… and the room was suddenly moving? It was moving like the floor had in the storage area of the Department of Mysteries upstairs… only this floor was moving up. Harry was too stunned to panic until he noticed the quickly approaching ceiling. His eyes widened and all logical thought fled him as he realized that he was about to be crushed. He closed his eyes just before he would hit and… he closed his eyes just before… err…

He opened his eyes to find himself in a field before the largest house he ever seen.

"Hey, kid… what are you doing here?" The leader Unspeakable called out as he walked over to him.

Harry turned around, "Erm… I dunno. I was taking the tour and the guy disappeared… then the floor was moving and I was about to die and now I'm here." Harry's brain still wasn't working at full speed due to the shock of the whole situation.

"Yeah… whatever. Hey just don't get in the way we're about to run a real important operation. It'd probably be best if you just stayed here." The Unspeakable looked just as confused as Harry felt.

Harry nodded, "umm… sure."

The Unspeakable went back to his group where they all cast _disillusionment _charms on each other. Harry remembered the spell from when Mad Eye Moody cast it on him last summer. He could still tell where they were when they moved until they got further away, moving in the direction of the giant house. He figured that he would just follow the Unspeakable's advice and stay put, he didn't want to interrupt their mission.

He found a shady spot under a large tree from which he could easily watch the house and settled down…

Just in time to see multiple jets of green light coming through the door, one hitting a _disillusioned_ Unspeakable! At first it seemed to just disappear, then the man flickered into existence and collapsed in a heap on the ground… dead. Harry was up in an instant and running towards the house, this really wasn't a training scenario! He knew he wasn't going to be much help to the team of elite wizards, but he couldn't just sit there while they were in trouble.

There was still a battle raging at the front door between three Unspeakables and what looked to be six or seven Death Eaters when Harry noticed two more dark robed figures emerging around the corner of the house… the Unspeakables hadn't noticed them yet. He had to do something!

He started hurling _expelliarmus _and _stupefy_ curses at the two unsuspecting men while running towards them. They immediately determined where their attacker was and began throwing their own spells in retaliation.

Harry ducked under a yellow curse that singed the hairs off his arm as it passed over before rolling behind a large boulder near a cluster of trees. The two Death Eaters were still firing away at the giant rock; he could feel it shaking as each curse tore chunks from it. The pieces that were flying off were coming dangerously close to his head… he needed to figure out how to get back in the fight. He couldn't help the Unspeakables if he stayed pinned down here.

The curses stopped… now was the time to act!

Harry jumped up from his hiding place; he needed a way to turn the fight in his favor. The two Death Eaters were now running towards him. Thinking quickly… or not thinking at all, he aimed his wand at the boulder and fired off a _reducto_ with all the power that he could muster.

It instantly exploded, flinging large chunks of rock in the direction of the two Death Eaters… Harry just stared in shock as he watched the two get mowed down by the dangerous projectiles. One lay on the ground unmoving whilst the other rolled around and moaned in pain. Harry quickly stunned the second one, he was still shocked at the effectiveness of his curse but didn't want to take any chances.

Harry was broken out of his stupor when he heard the scream of another Death Eater by the front door. He took off again; from the looks of it there was only one Unspeakable still standing and thankfully no more Death Eaters.

He reached the door just in time for it to disappear… along with the rest of the house… and the surrounding area?

He looked around; he was in the scenario room? Most of the other Unspeakables and Death Eaters were scattered about in various states of consciousness. This whole thing was just a training mission?

There was a large group of Unspeakables sweeping the room and providing aid to those who needed it. As they revived people the group grew larger until everyone was gathered in the middle of the room, Harry had been guided over by his companion whilst all of this was happening.

The most decorated Unspeakable present waited until everybody was gathered around before raising his wand high above his head and making a downward sweeping motion. The portion of floor they were standing on immediately began descending down into what Harry now knew to be the debriefing room. On the way down he noticed that the group of Unspeakables that he'd gone up with looked very somber. He wasn't surprised, as their mission hadn't gone very well. All of the important looking Unspeakables, the ones with more badges than everybody else, looked disappointed… and a few seemed to be angry.

Once the floor had settled the Unspeakable in the center of the room called out in a gruff voice, "everyone report to the healers, I don't care if you think you're injured or not. We will meet back here in one hour to discuss your dismal performance. Dismissed!" Harry wondered if he should go as well but his guide placed a hand on his shoulder to indicate that he should stay.

After all of those that were leaving had done so Harry was left alone in the room with his companion and three other Unspeakables, including the one that he'd decided must be the leader of the task force.

"Mr. Potter", the gruff voiced Unspeakable began, "allow me to introduce myself. I am the head of the Special Task Force Department, you can call me Lukas."

Harry nodded and shuffled his feet, thinking that he was about to get in trouble for interfering with the operation.

Lukas smiled widely, which unsettled Harry even more, "I understand that you might be joining the Unspeakables", he said with, what sounded like, pride in his voice.

"I'm… err… considering it sir," Harry said cautiously.

Lukas frowned, "Mr. Potter, I assure you that what you just saw upstairs is not the best we have to offer."

Harry was a little confused until his, as of yet, unnamed companion stepped in to help him out, "Harry, I believe he is saying that he doesn't want you to base your opinion on what you saw in the scenario room." Lukas nodded in response but stayed silent.

"Oh, no sir, that was amazing, I just haven't thought it over yet… it's all so overwhelming, you know?"

The department head looked relieved at Harry's response, "I'm afraid that we have different standards, that was one of the worst performances I have ever seen in this department."

Harry winced; he'd been involved in the operation as well.

Upon seeing Harry's reaction to his comment, Lukas let out a hearty laugh, "Mr. Potter… heh he… you don't need to worry, I was actually very impressed by the skill you showed out there. Unlike the Unspeakables that you fought alongside, you have had no formal training. I wouldn't be surprised if you became one of the best in the department with a bit of work… that is if you do decide to join."

"You really think I did well?" Harry had brightened up when he realized that he wasn't being berated.

"I think you did better than well… You didn't hesitate for a moment to charge in once the fight started. Then you took out two opponents all by yourself withoutgetting so much as a scratch. Much better than I would have expected." Lukas was smiling again.

Harry was a little embarrassed at the praise, "well, I did lose a few hairs on my arm sir," he said, trying to downplay his accomplishment.

Lukas just let out another loud laugh, "I like your style Mr. Potter. I do hope you accept our proposition, we could always use talent such as yours."

Harry asked a few more questions about how they went about training and what kind of missions they went on before he and his companion had to leave. The dismal looking group of Unspeakables marched single-file into the room, ready to be yelled at by their superior, just after they had cleared the door. His guide shook his head and frowned, "I'm glad that I'm not in their place right now… luckily I work in the Research Department and don't have to deal with irate commanders."

Harry nodded in agreement, but didn't want to let something like that affect his choice. He would most likely have the best chance of defeating Voldemort if he went through the Task Force training.

"There's one more thing that I think you 'ought to see." The Unspeakable said as they left the Task Force wing.

"What?" Harry asked, he thought that they'd already finished.

"Just follow me," the older man now had a mischievous smile on his face.

They went through the door marked, 'Liaisons', before heading to another door marked, 'Quibbler.'

Harry paused in front of the door… surely this must be some kind of a joke. What interest would the Department of Mysteries have in such a dreadful magazine? Most of what they printed made absolutely no sense at all… He looked up at his companion, confusion written over his face.

The Unspeakable just stared wistfully at the door and started talking, "wouldn't it be ironic… If the Department of Mysteries printed some of it's most fantastic secrets for all the world to see," he looked straight into Harry's eyes, "and nobody believed them?"

Harry gaped at the man… this was inconceivable… wasn't it?

"Some of the work I do in the Research Department involves the coding of messages written into Quibbler articles… consider it a sort of… company newsletter." The man was smiling widely now. "Oh, allow me to introduce myself, the name is Jonathan Lovegood, I believe you know my daughter."


	4. From the Other Side

Disclaimer: I don't own anything! Now leave me alone to sulk in the corner...

Author's Note: ...ok... I really mean it this time... now that the weekend is over, I probably won't be updating every day. So don't freak out on me or anything.

* * *

Harry appeared back in his room after Jonathan assured him that he would be back tomorrow in order to help him decide what to do. There were so many possibilities… of course his decision would be influenced by the fact that he still had Voldemort to worry about. Had that particular threat not hung over him, Harry thought he might like to try his hand at creating new spells. From what he saw earlier it looked like a lot of fun, and slightly dangerous as well… but what was life without a little danger.

The same portkey he'd used earlier this morning rested in his hand now, Jonathan had charmed it to take him back to his room. He flipped it over in his hand a couple of times, it resembled a galleon from farther away… but looking closer he could see that the inscription on it was different, 'Life Is an Enigma, Providing Infinite Questions and No Answers. We Do Not Seek Recognition, Only Illumination. Solving the Riddles of Life Since 923 A.D.', there was also a picture of the Greek Goddess, Athena, engraved into it. He hadn't realized that the Department of Mysteries had been around for so long… then again, he hadn't even known that it existed until recently.

After his long day, all Harry wanted to do was go to sleep. He pocketed the coin and began taking off his beat up shoes; he really needed to get some new ones. Not bothering to look, he tossed them off the bed… his room couldn't get much messier anyway.

But to his surprise, he heard an, 'Oof…' with a loud thump following.

He turned his head quickly… to find Albus Dumbledore smiling up at him from his floor whilst rubbing his forehead.

Before he could say anything, not that he would have been able to think of anything anyway, Dumbledore chuckled and began, "That will teach me to come in without knocking… Though I did figure that you would not mind as your door was already open."

Harry sat there stunned… He'd thumped Albus Dumbledore on the head with a shoe! He realized that he needed to say something at least, "err… sorry sir, I didn't see you there."

"It's quite alright my boy… believe it or not, this is not the first time," Dumbledore said as he stood up and dusted off his purple robes.

He was curious but decided not to ask. "Professor… why are you here exactly?"

"Ah, yes… well, I was sitting in my office eating lemon drops when one of my many trinkets started acting up, the one that monitors the wards around your home. I tried whacking it a few times to get it to work… I believe that muggles sometimes use the same technique on their tele-fissions. When it continued malfunctioning I decided that it might be prudent to check that you were o.k." Dumbledore reached up to straighten his glasses and scratch his beard, "when I arrived, I was surprised to find nobody home. So I immediately set the available Order members to the task of finding you… Then a short while ago Fawkes contacted me… well, he actually popped in and kidnapped me right out of a meeting with Severus." Dumbledore chuckled, "Oh, I bet he's a bit befuddled right now… ah yes, Fawkes took me to my office. The ward monitor was working correctly at that point so I figured that you may be back from wherever you had gone to… and here I am."

"Oh…" Harry didn't really expect such a thorough… or strange answer.

"Not that it's any of my business Harry, but I am immensely curious as to where you were." Dumbledore was scratching his head at the edge of his hat with one of his long fingers.

Harry didn't know how to answer, "Well sir, I'd like to tell you… but I'm not so sure that I can." Harry really did look confused.

"Hmm… how interesting, did you by chance swear some sort of secrecy oath, or were you unaware of where you were?"

Harry was about to tell him that he'd sworn an oath… but no sound came out of his mouth. He looked pleadingly up at Dumbledore, who just nodded in response.

"Yes, as I thought… I assume that this had nothing to do with Lord Voldemort, as I can't imagine him letting you go so soon… and I doubt that you wouldn't require a visit to St. Mungo's after being victim to his unique sort of hospitality." Harry didn't think that he'd ever seen the headmaster smirk before… it was definitely a strange sight.

"No sir, nothing to do with Voldemort."

"Well that leaves very few options… either you were abducted by aliens and subjected to various experimentations or… oh, maybe there is a girl?" Dumbledore raised his eyebrows suggestively and Harry… well, he choked.

After his coughing fit had subsided Harry corrected him, "Ah… no sir, not currently at least."

Dumledore furrowed his brow for a moment before a knowing look came over his face. "Ah well, I suppose it is unimportant now that you are here and safe. Do you foresee anymore of these… mysterious disappearances in the near future?"

"Umm… most likely sir."

"Ah, then I suppose that I will have to disregard any future instances such as this one… Tell me Harry, have you thought about what classes you plan to take next year?"

The twinkling in Dumbledore's eye was making Harry nervous… and the fact that he didn't really want to tell the headmaster that he didn't plan on going back to Hogwarts probably contributed as well, "I haven't really thought about it much yet Professor."

"Yes, well… I heard from Professor McGonagall that you aspire to one day become an auror, a worthy goal if I do say so myself."

Harry shook his head, "I'm not so sure anymore."

"I'm sure that your friends will support you no matter what course of action you undertake." Harry thought that this comment was overly dramatic for talking about which classes he would be taking, but marked it up to Dumbledore's insanity… He was a headmaster; maybe he really did see those sorts of decisions as spectacular.

They continued to talk about inconsequential things such as Harry's past adventures for a while, Dumbledore promised that he wouldn't get in trouble for telling him. Harry learned that the headmaster had been quite a troublemaker in his youth as well. "In fact," he said, "I held the record for most accumulative amount of time spent in detention, even more that the Weasly twins, until your father broke it… in his fourth year. I was a bit disappointed, but those were some very interesting years. I doubt that anybody will ever come close to breaking it again… maybe I should put up a plaque outside of Mr. Filch's office. I'm almost certain he would appreciate it." Dumbledore winked at Harry as he finished.

Harry confirmed his earlier thoughts of Dumbledore being touched in the head, but he was enjoying hearing more about his father… even if it was something he'd heard before.

Eventually Dumbledore got up from his chair… chair? Harry hadn't even noticed him conjuring one… Anyways, eventually Dumbledore got up from his chair and said that it was time for him to leave, "I'm not as young as I used to be… did I ever tell you about the time that I stayed up for two straight weeks?"

Harry shook his head.

"No? We'll save it for another time then," he said, "and now, if you will excuse me, I will be on my way."

Harry got up from where he was sitting on the bed, "Umm… goodbye Professor, I expect I'll see you soon."

Dumbledore nodded, "I expect you shall… You're parents would be very proud of you Harry, as should we all be… though I doubt you would ever hear Professor Snape say that." Dumbledore stood there and smiled down at the younger boy… and disappeared in a flash of fire.

Harry stared at the spot the old man had left from. His last words had really struck deep within him… his parents really would be proud of him… he was taking his destiny into his own hands, Merlin! He was being recruited by the Unspeakables… and he wasn't even done with school yet! He wished that he could talk to his parents, if only for a short while, to see if he was doing the right thing. He knew it was impossible however, and it was all because of Voldemort… Harry would stop him no matter what it took.

He sighed and sat back down on the bed.

Jonathan Lovegood was going to come by again tomorrow to take him back the Department of Mysteries. Harry had already decided that he would have to join the task force to get the kind of training he needed to beat Voldemort… he would need to ask what kind of specialized positions were available. One thing he knew is that he did not want to be part of a team… he could put his own life on the line, but anybody else would be a distraction. The training mission he'd participated in earlier in the day reinforced the thought.

Harry looked at the clock on his wall. It was already pretty late, Dumbledore had stayed over for much longer than it had seemed… but he'd enjoyed talking with the old man. As long as he wasn't spouting off prophecies or telling him to behave, he really was a cool guy… if a bit insane.

He lay back on the bed. This had been one of the craziest days he'd ever had, never in his wildest dreams would he have ever thought that he'd be an Unspeakable… or that the Quibbler had been telling the truth all along.

There was another bright flash of light and Harry sat up thinking that Dumledore must have forgotten something… to find a note… sitting on the latest issue of the Quibbler.

The note was from Dumbledore…

_Harry,_

_It pleases me to see that you have become a part of something so great._

_I also want you to know that your secret will always safe with me if you_

_ever need advice. I know that I said that your parents would be proud_

_of you, but I did not tell you that I am also proud of you. You have _

_grown into a fine young man. _

_Albus Dumbledore_

_p.s. In case you were not already aware, Hogwarts accepts visitors_

_on any day of the week._

_p.p.s. I believe that your friends would not be adverse to the idea of _

_you visiting them as often as possible._

Harry smiled at the thinly veiled hints in the letter. Of course he would visit his friends whenever he could… he'd probably learn all kinds of new ways to prank people in the Department of Mysteries, and now he couldn't get in trouble because he wouldn't be a student. His smile grew as thoughts of causing Malfoy and Snape all kinds of problems ran through his head.

He put down the note and picked up the Quibbler. He flipped through it until an article caught his eye…

Toxic House Cat Ravages Thirteen Ministry Employees, Department under Quarantine Until a Cure Can Be Found

_By, Edward Flangerabble_

_In a recent, freak incident, thirteen ministry employees were attacked by what seemed at first to be a common house cat. It turns out however that some which or wizard illegally altered the cat, causing it to fire high speed, toxic hairballs at anyone unlucky enough to come in close contact with it. The owner of the cat was not available for comment, being one of those under strict quarantine after the attack. The minister has not yet made any statement on the attack and it is our impression that he may be trying to keep the whole ordeal quiet by paying off the victims' families. An expert at St. Mungo's offered no explanation, claiming the she had, 'never heard of anything like it.' Until a cure is found, we can only hope that those involved in the tragic attack will hold on._

By the end of the article, Harry was in tears… If he hadn't known it to be true then he never would have believed it.


	5. And So It Begins

Disclaimer: Priase be to Rowling... she owns this stuff

Author's Note: I know that some of you may find this chapter a bit slow... but it needed to be done to get a lot of stuff out of the way before I can get to the action. I did try to make it as interesting as possible however... so don't say that I never did anything for you... or something like that.

* * *

Harry sat in a rather bland office with Jonathan Lovegood, who had separated himself from his work for another day in order to help him get settled in, and an unknown witch. It was the witch's office and her name was printed on the door… but Harry hadn't bothered to look. "Mr. Potter," her voice reminded him of McGonagall's, "While your current predicament is not unique, there will be a few problems that we must overcome before you can become a full Unspeakable."

Harry nodded; he had expected this.

She straightened the papers on her desk and cleared he throat lightly, not at all in the manner of Umbridge. "First, I will cover the unusual circumstances and then we will get to the standard paperwork and such." She peered down at the first sheet of paper in front of her then looked up suddenly, "you'll have to excuse me if this takes a while, we've had to update the process since the last person your age came through." Harry knew that it wouldn't have been common for someone so young to join, but they'd had to update some sort of procedure just to get him in?

"For starters, you are not yet of legal age and must therefore attend school… However, this could be circumvented if you were to complete your NEWTS before the start of term."

Harry had to interrupt at this point, "Err… exactly how am I supposed to learn two years worth of stuff in just a few months?"

She just smiled at him, "with a bit of hard work and a few personalized tutors, I'm sure that it can be done. You do have the largest repository of knowledge in the world at your fingertips."

He sighed, that seemed like a lot more that 'a bit of hard work.' The NEWTS had been known to drive people insane… at least, that's what the Weasly twins told him.

"Now," she continued, "the test is given once during the summer over a period of four days with three tests each day. Depending on what classes you decide to test in, you may not need to attend all four days. I have a schedule here with me, you can mark the classes that you intend to take and return it to me some time before August 20th."

Harry nodded and reached out to take the form… but Mr. Lovegood apparently had other ideas. He had thought ahead and brought a folder with him in order to keep everything organized… Harry hadn't thought him to be the 'organized type' for some reason.

"Ok, next I have a few more forms for you to fill out and bring back. One is a request for a provisional apparition license; the other is a request for an underage magic waiver. Neither of these would normally be assured, as you have to be interviewed before a panel in order to be approved. Fortunately for you, however, we were able to pull some strings and get those taken care of. You will still have to pass your apparition test though."

Harry was about to tell her that he didn't know how to apparate, but she seemed to foresee this complication, "we will have somebody teach you in the next few days."

He nodded calmly, but underneath he was thrilled. Soon he would be able to apparate wherever he wanted, do magic whenever he wanted, and be through with school. Well, the last part wasn't completely t­rue; he still had years of training to go through as an Unspea­­kable.

"One more thing before we are done with the hard stuff, your legal guardian will need to sign this release form for you to work in the magical world as you aren't of age yet." She smiled… and Harry sunk in to his chair. There was no way that the Dursleys would ever sign it… Vernon wouldn't even sign the Hogsmeade permission form.

She frowned at his reaction, "do you foresee any problems in getting this signed?"

He sighed, "first of all, I haven't even seen my aunt or uncle in a few days and they didn't bother to tell me where they were going. Second, I doubt that they'd sign anything I asked them to… unless maybe it meant that they'd never have to see me again." His prospects were now looking fairly bleak, he'd been looking forward to becoming an Unspeakable too.

She sat back in her chair and got a thoughtful expression on her face. "Well, we do provide some housing arrangements, for a fee of course, it's similar to the auror's set up. If you were to have them sign the form, you could very well move out."

Harry replied instantly, "Of course! How much is it? When can I leave?" He could finally leave that wretched house! It was like a dream come true.

The Unspeakable had been startled by his outburst, but quickly recovered. "Wouldn't you like to know about the living arrangements before you agree?"

"Err... Why is there something wrong with them?" Harry really didn't care what the living arrangements were like… they couldn't be worse than his old cupboard.

"No… well never mind, you can get a tour of them later," she shuffled through the stack of papers, "here, this is an application for housing. You will have to meet with the house elf in charge of your community, once you are assigned one, to get all of the rules."

"Sure," Harry was unbelievably happy, not only was he going to be an Unspeakable… he would be free from the Dursley's tyranny forever.

She sighed, "Well, that leaves only a few things. This form," she held up yet another form, "will be filled out by the head of your department, you will have to work out the details along with them. Basically, depending on what your position is, you will be allocated funds for research or equipment and other such things… and finally," she smiled, "this last form is to be filled out by the nurse, which is your next stop. So, I'll see you later… and good luck."

* * *

The Dursleys arrived home after a short stay at the beach, to findthe houseempty. This only annoyed Vernon even more than he already was.

He was annoyed for various reasons.

First of all, he was still furious at the manager of the nice resort they'd been staying at. The nerve of the man! Apparently, too many people had complained that they found his body disturbing… the manager had the gall to ask him to 'show some respect for the other guests' and wear a shirt! Sure, he may weigh… a little more than average, but it was all muscle! …Truly! That was the reason they'd left, some kind of service, the resort was for high-class people… like himself, they should have been honored to serve him.

He was also annoyed at Dudley for the first time he could remember. The boy had been complaining for days that none of the girls would talk to him… as if they wanted him associating with those riffraff anyway. The suits they wore should be considered illegal! Besides, they obviously wouldn't know good looks if they'd been slapped in the face by them; Dudley was a fine looking young man! No, they wouldn't be going back to that resort… catering to the dregs of society, obviously devil worshippers… like the Potter boy.

His sunburn was also annoying him… those manufacturers should make bigger bottles. You'd think they would make them large enough that you'd be able to properly lube yourself. He'd had to buy two jumbo sized bottles just to cover himself once!

And now that he was back, he'd have no excuse not to go back to work… and the boy was gone, probably off selling drugs or beating up small children. The only thing he'd been looking forward to during the long car trip was taking his frustration out on the boy, watching the little miscreant do anything he asked was a great stress reliever. All of his …freakish things were still here, so he hadn't left yet…. Or run away. Pity. Knowing that he wouldn't have to look at the boy for the rest of the summer would have been almost as good as making him do all the chores.

* * *

Harry checked out at the hospital, he was clean. No magical tracers, not that they worked in the Department of Mysteries anyway, or contagious diseases. The healer reminded him of Professor Flitwick for some odd reason… she didn't look anything like him, but she somehow exuded a sense of professionalism at the same time as eagerness. She was distinctly interested in his scar… as many people were, but she had a more clinical interest. He could tell that she wanted to study it but didn't want to be so presumptuous as to ask. He didn't think he'd have let her anyway; it was a touchy subject for him.

The next stop was the cafeteria.

It wasn't as large as he'd thought it would be. Then again, it looked like most people either apparated out for lunch or just ate in their offices judging by the small number of people dining.

Harry and Mr. Lovegood got plates and sat down at an empty table.

"So, what do you think so far," Jonathan truly was a reporter at heart.

"Well, it's a lot of paperwork… but once I get settled in I'm sure it'll be great. I still can't believe that I'm going to be taking my NEWTs before the end of summer."

"You'll do fine, remember you-" He suddenly looked up at something behind Harry. There was a furious looking Unspeakable heading right towards their table… Harry recognized him as the one who had led the disastrous training mission yesterday. Apparently things hadn't gone very well in the debriefing room after they'd left.

He walked straight up to Harry, "Listen kid, I don't wanna see you around my department anymore, got it!" Harry just sat there stunned, this guy was nuts if he thought that he could stand in Harry's way… He'd faced bloody Voldemort for Merlin's sake! Snape was scarier than this guy!

"Umm… sorry but you'll probably be seeing me a lot, since I'm joining… your… department," He said calmly, although inside he was worried about this guy doing something stupid.

Jonathan stood up, "Excuse me, but you're in no position to demand anything of –"

The younger Unspeakable interrupted him, "I worked hard to make captain… and I won't forget who lost it for me." With that he strode off amid the gaze of just about everyone in the room. Most of them shook their head and went back to eating after he left.

"Well, that was interesting…" Harry decided to just stay away from the man. He wasn't really afraid of him, but he doubted that he could hold his own against the Unspeakable until he'd gotten some training.

They quickly finished eating in order to make it to Harry's appointment with the department heads.

They arrived in a small conference room a few minutes later and took a pair of seat at the little round table that was centered in it. Three Unspeakables came in a few moments later and took their seats. Harry recognized one as the head of the DoM Special Task Force Department and guessed that the other two were the heads of the Research and Development Departments.

"Good day Mr. Potter, I am Lawrence Fizzlebroth, head of the Research Department." Ah, he was right!"To my right is Helga Moonlathe, head of development… and I believe that you have already met Lukas." The man reminded him of Percy Weasly… without the red hair they could actually pass for twins. "The purpose of this meeting is to present you with proposals from prospective project and sub-department heads. As the number of offers was exceedingly high, we have each taken the liberty of filtering out those few that we find you unsuitable for" Harry had a hard time not laughing at the odd man's speech… he just sounded so funny. He noticed that the other two Unspeakables were smiling as well.

"Now, before we begin, do you have any position that you would prefer?" The odd man raised his eyebrow questioningly.

"Umm… yes sir, actually I thought that I'd like working in the Special Task Department… err… preferably alone."

Fizzlebroth turned his gaze upon Lukas, who was already rifling through his folder. He pulled out three sheets and cleared his throat before setting the folder back down again. "Let's see, I have a few available spots. One of them is more of a reconnaissance oriented position… and this one," He flipped to the next sheet with a disgusted look on his face, "well, anybody could do this. The last one is more along the lines of stealth tracking and assassination. It would require a lot of extensive training, but if you're up for it… well, one of the guys who does it now it a little past his prime and has put in a request for a department change." He looked hopeful, obviously he wanted Harry to take it. He didn't necessarily like the fact that he'd be learning assassination techniques… but all of the extra training that it required would certainly prepare him to face Voldemort.

"Would that one still be open at the end of the summer… I need to take my NEWTs before I can really take any of these offers."

Lukas shrugged then smiled, "He's been waitingfor years, I'm pretty sure that he can wait a few more months… of course if you started training with him early then you could get a head start. It's not often that we get someone with enough talent to take these kind of jobs."

"I think I'd like to take that one then." Harry was resolute, this was his best shot and he wasn't going to pass it up.

Mrs. Moonlathe broke in, "wouldn't you at least like to look over a few of these other offers? I'm sure you'll find some of them interesting."

"Err… no Mam, I'm pretty sure this is what I need to do."

"Alright then, we'll leave you two to work out the details," Fizzlebroth said as he got up to leave the room. "Goodbye Mr. Potter," he didn't wait for a response before heading out the door, Helga followed quickly after. He got the impression that they were both a bit upset that he hadn't even considered any of their proposals.

"Now," said the gruff voiced Unspeakable, "let's get down to business."


	6. Who's in my House?

Disclaimer: insert usual disclaimer here> ... or if that really disappoints you then I suppose I can say one. clears throat I own nothing that you've ever seen in any of the books... the end.

Author's Note: This was done a few days ago... actually I think I tried to get it up three days ago, but you know how these things go.

* * *

The meeting had taken most of the afternoon. Jonathan only had time to show Harry where his temporary office would be before sending him home. Until he had completed his NEWTs, Harry would be stationed in the Research Department, where he'd be able to use the resources there in order to study. He would also be meeting his tutors in the room… his tutors… Harry was going to be tutored by the people who proctored the test. It was just another perk of being an Unspeakable… well, almost being an Unspeakable anyway.

He would have also begun training with the Unspeakable whose job he would be taking over… but he was out on an assignment and would continue to be away for a few more days at least. Until he got back, Harry would be training with one of the rookie teams. But, that was all tomorrow; right now all he wanted to do was hit the sack.

He was just lying down when he heard it… somebody was in the house!

Burglars! Murderers! Death Eaters! Voldemort! It had to be him! There was no other explanation… wait a second… calm down. He thought about it for a second. Voldemort wouldn't loiter about downstairs; he'd be somewhere else… like right behind him! Nope. Not there either.

He thought about it for another second.

He had to figure out who it was before he jumped to any more dangerous conclusions. Making up his mind, Harry crept slowly out of his room, wand clenched tightly in his fist. As he came to the stairs he heard plates rattling… the burglar was eating? Harry had known stranger things to happen… so he shook himself and refocused on his task. For all he knew, it could be some mastermind scheme thought up by Voldemort to put him at ease, make him easy to capture. For a moment he visualized Moody in his head screaming 'Constant Vigilance!' at him.

That made him pause again.

Was it such a bad thing to be so paranoid as Moody was? Harry figured that since the old auror was still alive after all of his encounters with dark witches and wizards, he must have been doing something right. The plate burglar was still in the kitchen… probably setting a trap for him… or testing the knives for sharpness. He made sure to skip the steps that creaked; it wouldn't do to make any noise. No, that would most assuredly sign his death warrant. Whoever was in the kitchen must be an insane criminal genius. They were doing an excellent job of making Harry jumpy… being nervous would cause him to make mistakes, and it would only take one slip up. After that he'd be toast.

He finally reached the bottom of the stairs.

He could see the person's shadow… they were huge! They must be some kind of warrior ninja… they'd probably be large enough to crush his skull in their hand. He had to wipe his glasses off, the sweat pouring down his brow was impairing his vision. He got his back up to the doorframe… now he wasn't sure that he really wanted to know what he was dealing with… what if it was something worse that what his imagination had already come up with? Like a demon! No. Don't think about that! Though, now that he thought about it… demons were sure to be pretty large… and they probably ate things other than sacrificial virgin flesh…

He hoped it wasn't a demon.

What he wouldn't give for Moody's magical eye right now… he'd be willing to trade one of his own, that was for sure. Instead, he had to look around the corner… to face the beast. It was now or never, because he'd probably never sum up the courage to do it if he didn't do it… now! Err… now!

Harry squared his shoulders and calmed his breathing. All he had to do was accept certain death and he'd be fine. No problem.

He was ready this time, no unexpected surprises… all he knew was that whatever was around that corner was going to kill him.

He did it quickly, before he had the chance to change his mind, leapt around the corner with his wand held straight out and screaming something awful!

And the beast screamed back!

Wait… that wasn't a beast, It was Dudley!

"AHH! I didn't do it I swear! Put it down, I won't do it ever again…" Dudley had fallen out of his chair and was yelling up at Harry from the floor.

Harry's arm lowered mechanically… he was stunned stupid. There was no demon… it was just Dudley… no demon… no demon… just Dudley…

Dudley must have noticed Harry's lack of reaction, "Umm… Harry?" His cousin was still gasping for air.

A loud thumping something was coming down the stairs followed by s smaller something. It was of course, his Uncle… with a baseball bat. Following in his footsteps was Aunt Petunia. "What have you done to him boy!" His face was rapidly approaching the disgusting shade of red that signified total meltdown. Harry had categorized each shade of red that his Uncle's face went through… and it had never reached total meltdown, not even when he'd accidentally turned his teacher's hair blue. He had to act fast.

"Err… I thought he was a dem- I mean, burglar." His face lightened a shade. He was still, however, in dangerous territory.

"A likely excuse! Put that… thing away!"

Harry did as his Uncle asked, not to do so would have resulted in more yelling… and Harry had developed a headache rather quickly. "How was I supposed to know that you were home? You didn't even tell me you'd left!"

Wrong thing to say.

"Well we've _only_ been home for twelve bleeding hours, where were you? Off taking drugs with your freaky friends no doubt!" Vernon had a habit of answering his own questions when it came to Harry.

Harry sighed and walked over to the table. He sat down in a chair and leaned back. "I'm sorry for scaring Dudley," Dudley made a noise of indignation from the floor, "and waking everybody up… but really, you've been gone for… I don't know how long. I thought someone had broken into the house or something."

"Very well boy, but we'll be talking about this in the morning. You're lucky I'm so tired from the car trip." Vernon and Petunia thumped their way back up the stairs, Vernon grumbling under his breath, and Dudley heaved himself off the floor. It seemed that no amount of excitement could affect his immense appetite… he went straight back to his snack.

Harry sighed and made his way back up to his room. He'd have to convince Vernon to sign the form tomorrow morning when everyone had calmed down… He wondered when they had gotten home anyway.

OoOoOoO

Harry was up early the next morning; he wanted to catch his Uncle after he'd just gotten up. That way the large man wouldn't have time to get annoyed by his mere presence… and that would make it easier to get him to sign the work release form. Harry figured that if it didn't work at first, then he'd have to irritate the man as much as possible so he wouldn't want to object to Harry's leaving. He didn't really care which plan he used. On the one hand, he'd be out as early as possible… on the other; he'd get to annoy Vernon as much as he wanted before he left.

His Uncle was drinking tea and reading the morning paper in the kitchen.

Harry decided to go for an 'unsettling' approach, that way his Uncle might be so disconcerted that he might sign the form in confusion. "Hey Uncle Vernon, lovely day out isn't it?" He was talking in his most sickeningly happy voice… that was sure to disturb the man.

As expected, his Uncle rumpled his paper and looked at Harry warily then muttered under his breath about something that sounded like 'juvenile delinquents.'

"Uncle Vernon," the man looked up at him again, "wouldn't the summer be even better if I wasn't around for it?"

That got his attention. Harry could almost see the thoughts and calculations going on in his stupid mind. "Are you staying with those other freaks again?"

"No sir, I was thinking about moving out permanently." He was purposefully building it up so that his Uncle would be too excited about the prospect of never seeing him again to even consider refusing Harry's request.

His eyes widened even further. "Really, where would you go?"

"Well, I've been offered a job in… err... my world. They have housing available."

"What's stopping you then?" The man seemed desperate for Harry to leave now, no doubt imagining a 'Harry-free' life.

Here was the moment of truth, "well sir, since I am underage, I need my guardian to sign this release form so that I can work in …my world." He had to be careful now. If he seemed to want it too much, his Uncle might withhold… just to be a cruel jerk.

He looked thoughtful, "so if I sign that… you will go away and I'll never see you again?"

Harry nodded, "most likely." It was best to sound indifferent; he could tell his Uncle was fishing for some kind of reaction. Plus, he knew he was frustrating the fat man by not showing any real emotion.

Apparently he was frustrating enough that the man actually came out and asked, "So you want this job do you? We aren't good enough for you… is that what it is?"

This would be tricky, "Oh no Uncle Vernon, I know that we both don't like being around each other all that much… and well, this was an opportunity to get out of you hair," oh, this was fun, "I mean, if you really don't want me to go… well maybe I was wrong and you really do like me." He reached out as if to take the sheet but Vernon stopped him.

He cleared his throat, "no, I can see that you really want to do this, so I'll just sign it and you can be on your way. Just don't come back begging for money and such." He really looked like he was doing him a favor… the sight almost made Harry throw up. The fat man pulled a pen out of a nearby drawer and signed it quickly. "Here," he said as he shoved the paper at Harry, apparently he could no longer hold in his joy. It was a very odd sight… seeing Vernon smile. Well, he'd seen the man smile, but never one of genuine happiness.

"Well," Harry said, getting up, "I'll just be on my way then. I expect to be gone within the day… but if I'm not then it will be before the weekend.

Vernon didn't pay any attention to Harry; he was too bust wallowing in his bliss.

Jonathan was in Harry's room when he entered… and everything was already packed. "Hello Harry, ready to go?" He said with a large grin.

"Umm… sure but, how did you know to pack my stuff?" The man couldn't know that he'd gotten the sheet signed already… could he? He did work in the Department of Mysteries after all.

He smiled mysteriously, "trade secret I'm afraid."

"Whatever, so does this mean that my housing stuff is all set up?"

"Yes, that's our first stop… then your learning how to apparate, I can't keep picking you up everyday no matter how much I enjoy these little visits." The man really was strange… but he was Luna's father, Harry didn't really expect that he'd ever been very normal.

The Unspeakable turned his trunk into a portkey and grabbed Hedwig's cage… without Hedwig in it.

He up at him, "I already sent her along, don't worry" He said.

Harry nodded and touched the trunk, never looking back at his, now empty, room.

They arrived in another small, modern looking room. There was a little bed… though it was larger than the one he'd used at the Dursleys'. There was a desk under a window and a dresser in the corner. It wasn't large by any means, but it was all the room that he really needed… besides, he'd lived in smaller spaces before. He opened the window to allow Hedwig in, whenever she got there, and left the room to go look around. Jonathan started giving him a running commentary about his new accommodations.

"Your room is part of a complex," he started, "There are nine others like it, though I think that you'll only be sharing with four others for now." They came to a larger door at the end of the hallway, "This is the shared bathroom, they're pretty big if I remember correctly." And it was rather large, almost the size of the changing rooms at the Hogwarts quiddich pitch. Once Harry was done playing with all of the taps they turned around and went back the other way. At this end of the hall there was an entryway and two doorways leading off to either side. "One of those goes to the kitchen-slash-dining area, the other goes to a large sitting room."

Harry nodded but walked outside. The surrounding area was very park-like. Long sidewalks wound around the grassy hills with benches scattered about under shade trees. There were a few more complexes that Harry could see, but they were spaced out fairly well. He could see one or two people out jogging… he'd never seen magical folk exercise before.

He turned around to face the older man, "Where exactly is this place?"

He thought seriously about it for a moment, "You know, I lived here for a long time before I met my wife… but I still don't rightly know where it's at." He shrugged his shoulders and walked back into the building. Harry decided that it didn't really matter where it was; from what he'd seen it looked like a rather nice place.

He met Jonathan inside and wordlessly took hold of the portkey that the man was holding out for him.


	7. The Joys of Freedom

Disclaimer: GAHHH! I hate thses things... what was I gonna say? Oh ya... Fic, I hereby disclaim you! MWAHAHAHA

Authours Note: Would've uploaded yesterday but FFN had all these problems so whatever.

* * *

They met Harry's apparition instructor in the main corridor of the Department of Mysteries. He was a very short man, almost as short as Harry himself. He was rather plump as well… the combination made him walk funny… Harry would describe it more as 'waddling.' The short man waddled… err… walked up to Harry and shook his hand, "Hello Mr. Potter, Brodrick Banesly at your service." Harry was getting tired of these awkward introductions; everybody already knew his name… so how was he supposed to introduce himself? He shook the little man's hand anyway and let him continue, "we will be heading up to the simulation room first. Then, if you get the hang of it quickly, we will be all over the place." He gave a quick smile and waved his wand, causing the floor to rise.

Harry looked curiously at Jonathan, "I thought you had to tap the ground or something…"

"Well," he replied as the room began to disappear, "if you're already in the main section of the Department of Mysteries, it's pretty much given that you're either an Unspeakable or under a secrecy oath. As you demonstrated at the end of term however, the upper level is not nearly as secure. It was decided that, for the sake of convenience, the security measures would only work one way." Harry nodded, that made sense.

The floor stopped moving and they headed for one of the doors, how they knew which one went where was still a mystery to Harry. As they passed into the modern looking hallway that Harry had been in on his first visit, Brodrick started telling him about his upcoming lesson. "We'll try to get you proficient enough to figure the rest out on your own today… but if you need more time, I can come back tomorrow as well."

Harry stopped walking.

"Umm… did you say that I might be able to apparate by the end of the day?" He was confused, Hogwart's apparition lessons lasted for a whole week during sixth year, and they had extra sessions for those who were slower than the rest. How was he supposed to figure it out so quickly?

Banesly turned around, "Err... yes, why wouldn't you?"

"Well, doesn't it normally take longer or something?" This guy really expected him to be done today!

He chuckled a bit, "I imagine that you're thinking of Hogwart's lessons," he paused while Harry nodded, "Well, those lessons are given to the majority of the sixth years all at once. You, on the other hand, will have my full attention until you get it right. Besides, it's really not as hard as people make it out to be." They continued walking again and Brodrick continued telling Harry about the lesson. "Now, what you need to remember is focus. Focus on your destination, focus on the apparition itself, and focus on your being. The reason why so many people get into splinching accidents while intoxicated is because they have trouble focusing… on anything at all." They finally reached the door to the simulation room.

Upon entering, Harry had to marvel at the versatility of the large room. Where there had been a large house a few days ago, there were now many different platforms, each different sizes and set at a variety of heights. Harry noticed that there were also large nets suspended loosely in mid air underneath of every platform. Surrounding the area full of platforms were sets of increasingly smaller rings, the largest being about half the size of a quiddich pitch. Every set was color coded as well. He couldn't see how many there were as the room was so large, but he imagined that they must go all the way to the other end.

"Now," began his instructor, "the process of apparating is very simple. First you must become aware of only yourself… tune out all of your surroundings. In time this can be accomplished almost instantly, you should have no trouble if you just imagine yourself in Professor Binn's class back at Hogwarts," the little man joked. "So, we will start with that step. I want you to try and concentrate only on yourself, nothing else at all. It doesn't matter how you accomplish this, you could count the hairs on your arm for all I care, but you must only be aware of yourself."

And so, Harry did so. The little professor made it difficult however, by asking him questions and telling him funny anecdotes while he was trying to concentrate. Finally he tuned the man out… and was shaken roughly by a hand on his shoulder. Jonathan was gone when he looked around and the little man was smiling at him. "Good, good Mr. Potter. You ignored all of my attempts to distract you for a good five minutes. We are going to do this again, this time however, once you have withdrawn into yourself, I want you to imagine yourself disappearing and reappearing in the same spot…"

Harry nodded and set to work ignoring Brodrick, who was now humming tunes loudly while… levitating himself. He was doing some pretty amazing aerial maneuvers when Harry realized that he wasn't focusing on the task at hand. A while later, though much quicker than his last attempt, he suddenly disappeared and reappeared almost instantly in the same spot. A loud cracking noise accompanied this action, causing the floating professor to lose his own concentration and flop to the ground. It was a good thing he wasn't very high up at the time.

The little man got up from the floor and walked over to Harry, "that was a very good time for your first attempt, I want you to try a few more times however, until you can disapparate in under one minute." With that the little man walked a few feet away and Harry began focusing… when a spell almost nicked him in the ear! The little guy was throwing spells at him… well, not at him but right around him. This would make it much more difficult.

Despite the curses, Harry still managed to disappear a few more times, each time it became slightly quieter and eventually he could do it consistently in less than a minute.

Brodrick walked up to Harry after he'd been practicing for about two hours, "You're doing very good Mr. Potter, now we can move on to directional apparating. You should find that it isn't much more difficult than what you've already done." Harry nodded, "what I want you to do is pick one of those large rings," he pointed to one of the huge rings that wasn't that far away, "and try to apparate to the center of it. You need to imagine yourself reappearing in the middle of it after you've disappeared."

The man apparated over to the hoop and waited patiently.

Harry appeared in the center of the hoop… the wrong hoop. The man followed him shortly after, "Ah, it would be a fine performance… if this happened to be the target you were aiming for." Harry just looked sheepish, "In directional apparating, your subconscious calculates the degree of angle and distance that you need to apparate. We will continue this method until you can accurately apparate into a hoop of…" he looked around, "… hmm," then he looked down and smiled, "this size… Very well, if you would please try again."

Harry continued popping about the room until his instructor was satisfied, it took much less time than the last step and he was apparating in less than thirty seconds each time. It didn't feel strange to apparate like he'd thought it would. It just felt like… nothing. You were in one place and then your surroundings suddenly changed. Harry liked it much more than floo travel already, he'd never gotten used to all of the spinning.

They moved on to the platforms afterwards, with Harry only missing the first few times… now he knew exactly why the nets were there. Mr. Brodrick decided that it would be a good time to stop for lunch, so he made a portkey that would take them out to Diagon Alley. After lunch they would start apparating to places that Harry couldn't see, but had been to before.

* * *

Harry apparated back to the Department of Mysteries later in the day, Brodrick had given him a ring that would allow him to bypass the wards as long as he was wearing it. He made his way to the office that had been allocated to him and picked up a stack of books and a schedule. The books were picked out by his tutors and the schedule told him when he would be in training and what tutoring he had each day for the next couple of weeks. As quickly as he'd popped in, he left again.

After a long day of constant apparition he was tired and hungry… but he was still anxious about meeting his new roommates. He appeared in his room and dropped everything on his desk before heading towards the kitchen. He found three of them seated about the large table, obviously sharing some sort of funny story.

"And then she says to 'im," the youngest looking one was saying in between bouts of laughter, "she says… no sir, everybody knows that there ain't no such a thin' as magic… and… HahaHa… and then," The young man was crying at this point, "…and then she's just sittin' there lookin' at 'im… and… her nose falls right offa' her face, and she just smiles at 'im and sticks it right back on an' walks right outta' there. That muggle just fainted, drop't right to the floor from the shock of it." They all burst into loud howls of laughter at that point. Harry just stood at the doorway, not wanting to interrupt the punch line of this guy's joke.

"Oi, you there," one of the others said after he'd recovered slightly, he was still laughing at unpredictable moments though, "you… hehe… the new guy?" The others had looked up, their red faces made for a hilarious sight and Harry almost started laughing right along with them.

"Yeah, Harry Potter," he said as he walked over to the one who'd addressed him and shook his hand. They all looked a bit shocked for a moment before quickly recovering.

"Good ta' meet ya lad, I'm Jack, that rogue over there," he pointed out the younger one who'd been telling the funny story, "is Jameson and over here is Jordan. I'm afraid that you just missed Bernie as he's out on assignment for a few." Harry nodded to each person in turn before Jack continued, "If you have trouble rememberin' any names just alls ya gotta do is shout, 'Oi J', an one of us is sure to come." He smiled widely at Harry as the other two broke up into laughter again.

He already liked these guys, they made him feel like he already fit in, like he was part of the group. Jack was the oldest looking one out of the group, he had a bit of gray hair left on his head and his brown eyes were framed by the many wrinkles in his face. Jordan looked like a Weasly, though his hair was slightly lighter, he had the same freckles and prominent nose. Jameson, the youngest one, thought still a good deal older than Harry, had slicked back black hair and a trim goatee.

"If you'd like a plate," Jordan spoke up this time, "we've always got too much food around here, our house elf is a bit overenthusiastic."

Harry thanked him, "I could tell you stories," he smiled, "…never let a house elf try to save your life."

As Harry sat down at the table with a large plate piled high in front of him, Jack eyed him, "Your gonna fit right in here lad. Now, I believe it was Jordan's turn…" he trailed off and waited for the red haired man to begin. It was apparently their tradition to swap stories during dinner.

"Ok, well we were all out havin' a pint," he started, "and apparently my good mate Bill, he had more'n a pint… more like a bucket load. An' he says up from the floor… err… he fell over at some point, 'Hey, lets all go ride that rolly quarster that them muggles ride in those 'musement parts' and we all says' 'Ah, naw Bill… you wouldn' make it half way out the pub.' But he up and apparates out on us! Then we hear this racket from a few tables over, and there's Bill spread out all over these guys' table. He says up to us from the table, 'At'll show ya, I got atleast three quarter.' And sure enough, he got himself past half way…" Everyone began laughing but Jordan just kept going, "…and then the medics show up and check him over, this big guy from St. Mungo's says to me, 'Do you know this guy?' and I says 'Sure I do, that there's my best mate Bill,' and he nods and says to me, 'well, he's gone and splinched himself.' Now, I didn't see nothin' wrong with him and so I tell the guy, 'Well, he looks fine to me.' And the big guy says back to me, 'well, he's got half a brain here… and half is sittin' in some poor muggle's lap up on a roller coaster.' Then I look at Bill and says, 'well, it's not like he needs it.' So the medics say, 'sure thing,' and apparate out leavin' Bill here with half a brain."

At the end of the story, the four guys were howling with laughter. The red faced Harry realized that he'd finally found some place to call home… however dysfunctional it was.


	8. Evaluation

Disclaimer: ...another one of these? ...Fine, but I won't enjoy it! ...Yes mom, sorry mom. Ok, well rubs the back of his neck and shuffles his feet I guess I have something to tell you... I don't really own Harry Potter... oh... you knew that already? Never mind then.

Author's Note: All right, this is my longest chapter so far. It was going to be longer, but I figured that I'd found a good spot to cut it at… and my brain stopped working temporarily, so anything I would have written afterwards wouldn't have made any sense. Please review, I'd like to know what you all think of the story and it's really discouraging that I've gotten like 1600 hits and only 8 reviews. I don't care if you rave about the stupidity of it… or preferably tell me what you like so that I can keep doing it… but give me some kind of idea. Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy it.

* * *

Harry got up the next morning and hit the shower before anybody else was awake. Nevertheless, he found piping hot breakfast bread in the kitchen… he wondered briefly if house elves didn't require sleep. They seemed to be working at all hours of the day… but Harry was a wizard, and like most wizards he really didn't care. But the food sure looked good! He needed to report in for evaluation and training early on in the day and then he would have tutoring after lunch.

The rest of his roommates eventually congregated in the kitchen as well, each in various states of wakefulness. He learned that Jameson, though usually jovial, was definitely not a morning person. The younger man had ranted and raved about nothing for a few minutes until the food in his mouth muffled his outbursts. Of course, it didn't stop him from grumbling quietly. Jordan was the complete opposite, he grabbed a bite to eat and left before anyone… even though he'd been the last one up.

Harry left after breakfast and headed to the classroom in the Task Force Department that had been designated on his schedule. Inside was the group that he'd been in the training mission with and one or two other Unspeakables, they were all sitting in desks. The one that had interrupted his lunch was there as well; he still didn't know the guy's name. Harry did feel a bit guilty about partially causing his demotion… and apparent reevaluation, but really, they did bad enough on their own.

The leader of the group looked up at Harry as he entered and glared at him, "the great lord Potter graces us with his presence," he said mockingly. "I thought I told you to stay out of this department." Harry noticed that he hadn't called it 'his' department again. He must have gotten in trouble for causing the scene in the cafeteria.

"Yeah, well I just happened to be in the neighborhood…" Harry trailed off, trying to diffuse the situation. He didn't really care for a conflict if he could avoid it.

The Unspeakables eyes narrowed, "you think you're funny? I'll have you know that I spent two years in training to get that position… and now I have to start over again. Think that's funny, do ya?"

Harry was saved from having to respond by the door opening to admit their training instructor for the day. Harry quickly took a seat as far away from the young Unspeakable as he could… the guy reminded him more and more of Malfoy every time they met.

"I am Mister Gilesworth," the instructor began once he'd reached the front of the room, "you will either address me as 'Mister Gilesworth', or 'sir'. We have a few new faces in here today and sadly a few old ones as well. What we are doing this morning is evaluating your skills so that we can design an individual training regimen for each of you. Before we begin, I need all of you to introduce yourselves and state your previous and prospective positions within the department. This will give me a better idea of what to look for when testing you…"

One of the new faces at the far end of the room stood and started. "Allison Dunesilles, I was previously in the Research Department with focus on lost and ancient runes. I applied for a position with the ward and curse breakers squad.

The other new person stood, "Umm… I'm Jacob Marchley, I was in spell creation in Development Department but it wasn't nearly as exciting as I'd hoped. I'm testing for placement in a standard Task Force. Mister Gilesworth nodded and took down notes for each person. A few of those in the group that was being reevaluated meekly reported their names and why they were there, the majority, however, seemed to resent their demotion. Especially the leader, "Cutler Fordon," he snarled out, "I was captain of a reconnaissance team… _apparently _I'm not good enough for that position anymore so I'm here to be placed where you see fit." The grown man was really acting childish… Harry sat there blinking stupidly at the guy's attitude and forgot to recite his name for a moment.

"Harry Potter, I'm new here so I don't have any previous position. I've applied for a position as a specialist with distinction in stealth tracking and assassination." Harry repeated what Lukas had told him the other day. Cutler started talking to his group quietly after Harry's statement, every once an a while one of them would start snickering… so he decided that he didn't really want to know what they were talking about. He was pretty sure that he could guess anyway.

The instructor looked mildly impressed at his prospects however, "You've talked to Lukas about this?"

"Yes sir." The muttering died down a bit. Apparently Cutler thought that Harry had set his sights too high but he couldn't argue with the approval of the head of his own department.

"Alright. Now, some of you know how the evaluation goes, some of you don't. For those that don't, well you'll find out soon enough." When he was finished speaking he waved his wand like his apparition instructor had, causing the floor to rise up in to what Harry assumed to be the simulation room.

He was proven right moments later when they came to a stop in the enormous room. Now occupying it, however, was what looked to be… a large portion of Knockturn Alley.

"Ok, here's what going to happen," Gilesworth began, "I am going to break you up into little groups. Then, you are going into the alley with your new teammate. You will eliminate any threat you face and you will complete your mission objective, you will not, however, be using lethal force. No group will know what the other's objective is so don't automatically assume that you're all on the same side." With that he split the twelve up in to four groups of three, Harry was happy that he didn't get Cutler in his… though one of his teammates didn't look like he really cared to be with him, he must have been one of Fordon's friends. Allison, the prospective curse breaker, was the other person in his group.

As Gilesworth was giving out orders, Harry introduced himself to his team, "Err... hey, I'm Harry Potter," he said, holding his hand out to Allison as she seemed to be the more agreeable of the two.

"Allison Dunsilles, I've heard all about you of course. I've always been curious… did you really slay a Bassalisk?" The other Unspeakable just rolled his eyes and walked a few feet away. Allison wasn't bubbling over with hero envy so Harry figured that she must be genuinely curious. He always hated when people asked him questions like that just so that they could build up their mental image of him.

After regarding her for a moment, he decided that he'd give her the straight version… not that he'd have given her Ron's version anyway… Ron always made him out to be some sort of super hero. He'd have to talk to that boy some day, iron out a few of his issues regarding reality. "Yeah… but really, it was mostly luck. I had help from the headmaster's phoenix, Fawkes. After he pecked out the eyes, I was able to fight it with a sword that Fawkes brought me," he decided not to tell her about the whole 'pulling the sword form the hat' thing as it would take too long and probably make him seem even more insane. "I got lucky enough to stab it through the roof of it's mouth when it struck towards me… though I did get a nasty fang in my arm, fortunately Fawkes healed that for me before I died of the poison."

She looked a bit sheepish, "sorry, the papers made it out to be some amazing battle at the time… I just couldn't imagine a twelve year old boy valiantly fighting off a hundred foot snake whilst blindfolded to avoid its gaze… and using the sword of Godric Gryffindor no less." She started laughing a bit at the absurdity of what the paper had reported.

"Well… it was Gryffindors sword, but the rest of that was rubbish... that snake couldn't have been an inch over fifty foot." Harry truly did think that he was downplaying things… nobody ever said that he wasn't a little bit dense.

"Err… yeah… tiny… hehe," she was a bit stunned at that revelation.

The instructor had finished with the other groups and was now approaching theirs. Harry noted that all of the other's had already entered the alley; he was a bit worried about that… if they were working against them then they'd have time to set up ambushes or something.

"Alright, everybody get over here and listen." He waited until they were all huddled together again… or just waited for the other Unspeakable to walk back from wherever he was, "based on each of your histories, I believe that you are the strongest team out here. With that in mind, your objective is to stop each group from achieving theirs. Use any means that you see fit, I don't care if you sneak up behind them and stun or if you just start blasting the street out from under their feet. You'll have to act fast; one group is probably already rooting through a store down the street looking for a nonexistent book. The others will most likely clash at some point as they are after the same artifact in Borgin and Burke's… you can either take out both or wait for one to wipe out the other…" They waited to see if he'd give them any more hints… but apparently not as he just started walking away.

"Ok, we'll hit the bookstore first and give the other two groups time to sort out their differences," Allison smirked. Being called the best of the four groups was doing wonders for their individual egos.

As one they headed down the street, not exactly knowing what they were looking for but looking nonetheless. Stealth wasn't really an issue at the moment because they didn't care if they were noticed or not… besides, the cramped street was dark enough to cover their movements from a distance. They didn't see any Unspeakables at the first bookshop they ran across so they continued further into the dingy alleyway. Harry, again, marveled at the authenticity of the simulation. He even had realistic slime covering his shoes… neat!

The unnamed Unspeakable spotted the group first. He made Harry and Allison stop and duck into an inlet off the side of the main street with him. "They've got a guard posted up ahead," he whispered out… it was the first time Harry had heard him say anything… he didn't _sound_ evil. "I don't think there is a back way in or out of the store… but if we let them know that we're coming, they may have time to set up a defense."

It sounded good to Harry; this guy had already been trained for these types of situations so he knew how to think, "what should we do?" Harry whispered back to him.

"We need to get close and take out the guard before he has time to alert the others… I think its dark enough in the alley that a disillusionment charm will work." Harry began to wonder why this guy wasn't the leader during the training mission… he seemed much more level headed than Cutler.

Allison gave her two cents next, "If we all go, there's a better chance that the guard would notice. One of us should take him out and then signal the others. Then we can take the other two inside by surprise."

Harry nodded and volunteered to go first, but the Unspeakable cut him off, "I'll go first… he was in my group so I should have a better chance sneaking up on him. You two watch from here." He then proceeded to disillusion himself and head down the street, clinging tightly to the shadowed walls. A few moments later, Harry saw the telltale red flash of a stunner out in the alley and they both took off. Mr. Anonymous was waiting for them, standing where the guard had previously been… the real guard was lying just beneath the window of the shop.

Once they got close enough the Unspeakable turned around and blew the door in with a powerful _reducto_. Harry hoped that the distraction it caused would be enough for them to take care of the two Unspeakables inside without much trouble. He was wrong of course, but what did he expect, life had never been simple for Harry Potter.

Both groups were firing curses through the door at a fairly rapid rate… so Harry decided that he probably wouldn't get far should he try to get in that way. The window looked promising however. He backed up to the opposite side of the alley, conjured up a _protego_ shield, and ran full speed at the window. If he had been inside of the store, he would've remarked on how cool he looked flying through a window with deadly shards of glass exploding outward from his point of impact… but he wasn't inside to see it so it didn't really matter. He did, however, have to block two curses that flew his way when the Unspeakables noticed his entry.

After blocking the curses, he quickly dove behind one of the large bookshelves, trying to find an advantageous spot to return fire from. When Harry was done catching his breath he stood up and looked around the side of the shelf. He only saw one of his targets, but his attention was focused on the door. Harry quickly came up with a stupid plan that would most likely leave him dead should Hermione ever find he did it. He threw a powerful _reducto_ at one of the shelves full of books, resulting in a massive explosion of wood and paper. The commotion it caused made the Unspeakable lose concentration and he was quickly stunned by one of Harry's partners from outside.

That left the last one… and Harry had no idea where he was. That is, until the bookshelf he was leaning on blew up from behind him. He used his quiddich training to soften the blow as he hit the ground after being thrown a few feet in the air… Falling off of his broom so many times had given him an instinctual reaction, which actually put him in a good position to fire curses back at the Unspeakable. He wondered briefly how Ron would react if he told him how quiddich had saved his life before he started throwing stunners at the man.

The Unspeakable was good, using books to block every spell that Harry sent at him… so Harry decided to use his own defense against him. Harry threw a few more stunners to let the guy get a few books in the air before he started banishing them towards the unsuspecting Unspeakable. It was sort of ironic; the man had helped him out by putting the books in prime position to be hurled at him. Before the Unspeakable knew what was happening, a rather large copy of, _How to Fight Dirty by Anhi Finback_, had knocked him out.

He quickly stunned the man… just to be sure that he was really out, though the large lump growing on the poor guys head told him everything he really needed to know. The rest of his team was waiting for him outside.

"You did good kid," Mr. Anonymous said, "though it was a bit reckless… you've got the assassination thing down, but stealth… well…" He trailed off, leaving Harry insert whatever he liked. Though, he was pretty sure that the Unspeakable wouldn't have said anything along the line of, 'well… I don't think I've seen anyone more stealthy ever in my entire life.' In fact, it was probably more like, 'well… that was just about the saddest performance I have ever seen and you should go kill yourself from the shame of it.' But, since he hadn't said anything, Harry stuck with his first assumption.

"Let's head to Borgin's, I think I can find it from here." Allison said and they all ran after her.

They reached the shop a few minutes later… to find a battle zone. Harry wisely suggested that they sit this one out, Allison and Anonymous agreed.

So they sat a ways off, silhouetted by the bright flashes of spell fire, having a friendly conversation. It would have been romantic if it weren't for all of the bloodshed happening just in front of them; kind of like watching fireworks… only the fireworks were hitting people.

"So," Harry directed to Mr. No-Name, "what's your name?" He was tired of referring to him by using these ridiculous made up names.

He regarded Harry for a moment before looking back towards the action. "Walter," he said simply.

"Walter," Harry repeated, "that's cool, how long have you been an Unspeakable? I mean, I've just gotten here and it's crazy…" He was trying to get the man to open up… he wanted to know why he'd seemed to resent him earlier.

"Three years… look, we should probably head in now. It looks like there's only the two of them left." He slowly got to his feet and waited for the others before walking calmly up to the two dueling Unspeakables. As they had both been going for a while, they were extremely easy to take out. A couple of stunners and the battle was over… it was sort of anticlimactic. The disappointing ending mixed with the post adrenaline exhaustion made for a sullen group of Unspeakables… and junior Unspeakable. They had won though… they were the only group to complete their objective.

The illusion that was Knockturn Alley flickered out of existence and a few medics came out and started reviving the fallen. They all grouped up again in the center of the room and Gilesworth lowered the floor. While they were descending, Harry got a good look at the person that he'd knocked out with a book… and his day just got ten times better. It was Cutler! Oh, how Harry wanted to laugh in his face right now, but he decided that it was enough just knowing that he'd gotten one over on him without rubbing it in as well.

They were now in another classroom, though this one had a large dueling stage at the front of it.

"Listen up!" Gilesworth called out in his authoritative voice, "will those groups that completed their objective please step forward." Harry and his group went to the front of the class. "Is this it?" he said, though he really already knew as he'd been watching the whole performance. When no one answered he muttered under his breath for effect, though he winked at Harry when the boy looked at him in confusion. "Alright, those of you who had a successful mission are excused from the remainder of the testing process. The rest of you still have a bit more work ahead."

Harry went ahead and left, he had checked his watch to find that it was still early and he wanted to get in a bit of reading before he met his tutor. Plus, he was hungry after all that action and an early lunch couldn't hurt. His two friends had stayed back to watch the proceedings… Harry could hear Gilesworth saying something about having to duel him as the door closed. He felt bad for the other groups… who was he kidding? He thought it was hilarious, especially since he didn't have to duel the crazed instructor.


	9. Migraines and Malfoys

Disclaimer: I don't own anything... so quit asking for money!

Author's Note: Ok, I wrote this today even though I should have been studying for the AP tests... But, I got this really good review this morning and started writing... then I just couldn't stop. Anyways, If I'm slow updating this week its because I still have another test.

* * *

Harry woke up Friday morning… and his brain still hurt. After his evaluation, he'd studied a bit for his tutoring session that was to take place after lunch. Of course, no amount of studying could have prepared him for… he shivered… Griselda Marchbanks. She had been the one to test him in transfiguration during his O.W.Ls. At the time, she was really pleasant, now… well, she wasn't unpleasant, just very strict. Harry imagined that Mrs. McGonagall could take lessons from her.

She had definitely put him through his paces… her philosophy was that if you knew the theory perfectly, and by theory she really meant every single bit of seemingly useless information on how the spell worked, that you would have a better understanding of the spell. And, as a result, you would 'master the practical applications of it through an intimate understanding of its inner working.' Harry just thought she was a little crazy. She was older than Dumbledore for Merlin's sake! Of course she was a bit crazy!

Harry had to give her credit however, by describing how transfiguration worked and the principles behind changing one material into another; she had already improved his overall transfiguration skill… Even though it had taken about seven hours of pounding theory into his brain until it was permanently branded there. He just hoped that every session with her wasn't like that; he wouldn't be able to sit his N.E.W.Ts if his head was full of mush.

Having nothing better to do this morning, he decided to go watch the rest of the Task Force evaluation. He would have studied for charms, which he was getting tutored in after lunch, but his brain wasn't up to it at the moment. Since he'd gotten up a bit late, all of his roommates were gone already… but there was still a heaping pile of breakfast waiting for him. He briefly wondered if house elves actually expected them to be able to eat all the food they made… or if they just had some sick sense of humor. He expected the latter, knowing Dobby, that house elf was the strangest of the bunch.

Harry wandered about in the Task Force Department until he found the classroom they were using today. It was actually the same one as they had used yesterday… but Harry wanted an excuse to snoop around and check out all the neat equipment they stored in some of the other rooms. It looked like Gilesworth was done dueling all of the Unspeakables and was now having them duel each other while he took notes. Those that weren't dueling sat in desks a good distance away from the stage, hoping not to get hit by a stray hex. Currently up on the platform were two of the Unspeakables that Harry didn't know the names of… he wasn't really paying attention when they'd introduced themselves to the instructor yesterday. Both of them seemed to be evenly matched, only a few curses seemed to get by either of their defenses. The fight looked rehearsed though, he figured that they must have been on the same team and each knew the others dueling style too well.

"That's enough!" Gilesworth called out to the two Unspeakables, "alright, Fordon and…" he looked around the room… and his eyes settled on Harry by the door, "Potter… you're next." He had that look in his eyes… like Dumbledore did when he 'accidentally' told Harry about the room of requirement. Cutler, on the other hand, just looked plain evil.

"Umm… sir, I'm just here to watch really." Harry wasn't afraid to duel the Unspeakable… he just didn't want to. Besides, if he won, Cutler would hold it against him… and if he lost, Cutler would never let him live it down. It was really a 'lose, lose' situation.

The older Unspeakable looked a bit ruffled at his excuse, "Do you think I care about that Potter? I'm tired of watching all these pansies duel each other, get up there and show them how it's done!"

"Sure thing… uh, sir." Harry made his way up to the platform, mentally reviewing a list of spells in his head.

Cutler glared at Harry the entire way, only addressing him in a harsh whisper once they were both on the stage. "So, Potter, are you going to… 'Show me how it's done?' because, I think that you don't stand a chance." He stared Harry down for a few seconds before whipping around and taking his place at the far side of the stage. Harry just shrugged and rolled his eyes.

They both waited for Gilesworth to commence the duel, which he did after a few moments with a short, unceremonious, "begin!"

Harry decided to start out on the defensive because he'd never actually seen Fordon attack… he had only defended himself against Harry's rapid cursing in their last duel. It wouldn't be safe to go into a straight up duel and waste all of his energy on attacks without knowing what he was up against.

As expected, Fordon began with powerful… and borderline deadly curses. He was apparently hoping to take Harry down quickly in order to boost his ego.

Harry dodged the first curse by ducking and rolling out of its path. It hit the wall behind him and left a 'Harry-sized' crater… that couldn't be a good omen. He quickly brought up a shield from his kneeling position on the ground to deflect the next curse, hopefully reflecting it back at the caster.

It almost worked; the purple curse impacted the stage near Cutlers foot and left a large hole. The timber that it blasted up tore up the Unspeakable's leg however, causing him to yell out in pain. Harry took the opportunity to fire off a quick _stunner_, but it was easily batted away.

Cutler shook off the pain in his leg quickly and fired off a blast of air at Harry. It accomplished its task, knocking Harry off his feet and almost into the wall behind him. He swiftly recovered, rolling backwards and bringing up a powerful shield as he reached upright position. He was glad he did, as immediately afterward, another powerful hex slammed into the shield. Harry strained against it for a moment while the energy leaked off the sides of the invisible barrier. Once he'd overcome the brunt of it, he deflected it off into a wall. The blast shook the stage, causing Cutler to stumble on his injured leg.

Harry, seeing another opportune moment, banished a few pieces of the stage towards the Unspeakable, hoping to keep him off balance.

The Unspeakable countered with a _reducto_ that blasted most of the timbers to dust. He missed a few however, two sailed over his head and one impacted his wand arm. The arm was whipped back by the force of the speeding plank and made a sickening noise. Harry could tell it had been dislocated by how it hung loosely at his side.

Harry was surprised a moment later when the Unspeakable fired off another _reducto_ after switching the wand to his other hand. He was so taken aback; that he didn't react in time and was left with deep cuts trailing across his left leg. It was painful to stand on, and even worse to move on. He had to end this quickly.

In response to the hex to his leg he threw a powerful levitation charm at the wounded Unspeakable. After letting the man hit the ceiling… hard, he let go of the charm. He hoped that either the impact on the ceiling or the stage, whenever he hit the ground, would knock the guy out.

Cutler threw a quick cushioning charm and managed to hit the floor with it, which was fairly outstanding considering how much he was flipping around in the air after hitting the ceiling at a strange angle.

Harry, seeing what he'd done, fired a strong _reducto_ at the spot where he would land, blasting a large hole in the stage just before the man reached it.

The man, amazingly, didn't break every bone in his body as he fell through the stage… though his dislocated arm seemed to be just hanging on. The fall did make him pretty angry though. He fired an invisible curse towards Harry… he could tell that he'd fired a curse by the planks from the stage ripping up in a path that was heading straight towards him.

Harry dove to the side, but his bad leg slowed him down and he was caught by the tail end of the curse, causing him to be flung hard into a wall.

He was in a bad position, Cutler was pulling himself out of the hole that he'd fell in… though the process was going fairly slow… and Harry was lying immobile against the wall. Both of his legs felt broken and he didn't trust himself to even try to move on them. He spotted his way out a moment later however, "_accio desk_," he yelled out as Cutler got the upper half of himself out of the hole.

The desk sailed across the room and broke in half across the surprised Unspeakable's dense head. The impact was too much for him and he finally passed out.

Harry heard somebody clapping off of the stage and turned to see who it was…

"You see," Gilesworth said, "a mere schoolboy… well, not really your usual schoolboy, but still. Potter just finished his fifth year at Hogwarts and has now bested an Unspeakable with two years of training in a fair duel." He looked around at the audience fiercely, "Do you see the consequences of being overconfident and cocky? Mr. Fordon underestimated his opponent and now lies unconscious." He looked back at the stage for a moment before calling out again, "Marchley, go get a few healers."

The young man from the spells department took off quickly. Harry didn't know if it was because he wanted to get the duelers help or if he was afraid of Gilesworth's wrath.

The instructor addressed the group again when Marchley had left, "I know you all think you're hot stuff. I know that a lot of you blame Mr. Potter for your demotion. What you obviously don't realize is that you all are nothing special. Sure, you have the talent required to work in the Department of Mysteries, but until you start using that talent you are nothing. Harry Potter has shown nothing but his greatest effort since he got here. You all have been lazing about for two years and it's about time you got your act together!" The older Unspeakable sighed deeply, "If I don't see any improvement… and if I don't see it quickly, you'll all be out of here. I'm not going to take your crap much longer… You're all dismissed." Gilesworth stared, stone faced, after them as they filed out the door.

The medics came in after the last one had marched out and quickly got to work fixing up the two battered duelers. While they were working on him, Gilesworth came over and kneeled down next to Harry. "I'm sorry for having to put you through that… but I needed to send a message that would get through to them. Besides, I doubt that any of them would even think of getting in your way now." He smirked.

"I'm always up for a challenge… but I'd rather keep my legs attached to my body next time I do something like this," Harry said up from the floor.

Gilesworth let out a deep throaty laugh, "Oh, I can't wait to see what you get yourself up to… you're about the only kid out of Hogwarts that could've taken him on… and you just call it a challenge."

Harry laughed along with him once he saw the irony of it, "Aw, that was nothing," he said jokingly, "you should see Voldemort."

Apparently that wasn't the right thing to say as Gilesworth quickly sobered up. "Yeah, well you'll be good in no time. I'd best be on my way, I've got a lot of paperwork to fill out for the medics… they'll heal you up in a second, but won't hesitate to take off your head if you don't tell them how you got hurt." He said in a weak attempt to lighten the mood before heading off.

The healers finished up with him in a few minutes… he was glad that he hadn't had to completely replace any bones. He was still recovering from the last time he'd had to drink that terrible potion. After he'd walked around the room a few times to get the stiffness out of his newly healed leg, he headed off to the cafeteria… he was feeling rather ravenous at the moment.

He headed down the hall, occasionally waving at the few people who'd gotten used to his presence in the Department of Mysteries. The cafeteria was a bit more full than it usually was… which meant that Harry had to wait longer to eat. Eventually, however, he did get his chance to grab some grub.

Once he'd piled heaps of food onto his tray, Harry set about trying to find a table. He quickly spotted Allison sitting by herself, reading the Daily Prophet and having a sandwich. As a matter of fact, a lot of people were reading the Daily Prophet. He would have been more interested to know why, but his stomach was calling for attention. He quickly made his way over to her table and plopped down.

She smiled at him… after he'd moved his tray so that she could see his face; perhaps he'd gotten a little bit _too_ much food. "Hungry?" She asked simply.

He shrugged, "I'm a growing boy."

Allison smirked knowingly, "and it wouldn't have anything to do with your little duel with Cutler?"

"Err… maybe, how'd you know about that?" Harry rubbed his neck sheepishly for a moment… but then his hunger overpowered his embarrassment.

"I was talking with one of the curse breakers… then when I left for lunch I ran into Jacob Marchely and a group of healers. He told me about it." She went back to flipping through the paper when she saw how enamored Harry was with his mashed potatoes… he wasn't really listening to her.

She had been looking through the paper for a few minutes when Harry, in a brief moment of coherence, remembered that he wanted to know why so many people were reading it. "Err… what's so interesting in the paper today? I noticed that a lot of people were reading it."

She looked up at him… and started laughing, "You… hah… you've got… mashed… haha… potatoes…" She couldn't finish, she buried her head in her arms and continued laughing into them… what's worse is, she drew the attention of a large portion of the diners… many of which also broke into scattered laughter at Harry's expense. Harry just reached up with a napkin and calmly wiped off his increasingly reddening face.

Once she'd gotten control of herself… well, better control of herself, (she still giggled whenever she looked him in the eye) she told Harry about the news. "Well, the Task Force did a raid on Malfoy Manor… though the paper doesn't specifically say that they were the ones who did it. Anyway, they found a bunch of incriminating evidence… Fudge was about to have Malfoy Sr. freed from Azkaban so the publics all in an uproar about it…"

Harry goggled at her. Finally, he'd never have to deal with that piece of scum ever again. He was still a bit stunned as he asked her for the paper, "Err… wow… could I… umm… read that?"

She just nodded and slid it over to him. Harry had completely forgotten his appetite, or perhaps he'd just inhaled enough food to sate himself already. There, on the front page, was a picture of the house that the Unspeakables had been using in the training mission… they had been getting ready for a raid on Malfoy Manor!

Fudge Secretly Aiding the Dark Lord? Public Votes: Yes By Polka Dotts, 

_Yesterday afternoon the Minstry of Magic raided the manor home of the prestigious Malfoy family, finding numerous pieces of evidence linking the head of the Malfoy line with You-Know-Who. Lucius Malfoy, one of Minister Fudge's trusted advisors, was recently locked away in Azkaban prison for breaking into the Department of Mysteries. Also arrested at the time were many other prominent members of the pureblood community, including some known Death Eaters. Malfoy was previously cleared on charges of being a Death Eater, pleading Imperious, after the fall of You-Know-Who. The Minister was quick, this time, to call for his removal from Azkaban prison, citing his last trial as a means to prove his innocence. The incriminating evidence found at Malfoy Manor, however, casts the last hearing into doubt and places Minister Fudge at a precarious position. Has the Minister been knowingly harboring Death Eaters in high positions of power within the Ministry or is Minister Fudge too incompetent to realize that his closest supporters also support the Dark Lord._

_By digging deeper into the tangled web of events, this reporter has uncovered numerous instances in which Minister Fudge has accepted large 'contributions' from the Malfoy family. These occurrences coincide directly with many of Minister Fudge's press releases as well as the passing and holding of many new laws. The relationship between these 'donations' and the Minister's schedule suggests that Fudge, with knowledge of Malfoy Sr.'s intent, accepted numerous bribes. The new evidence that solidifies Lucius Malfoy's obvious encampment with the Dark Lord only pulls Minister Fudge deeper into this scandal. Did the minister know that Lucius Malfoy was acting on the behalf of You-Know-Who? According to public opinion, Minister Fudge won't be Minister for long._

The article went on for pages, listing financial records and dates of press releases. Everything pointed to the Minister accepting bribes from a Death Eater. This was the best news he'd heard… ever! Well, ever since he'd learned that he could leave the Dursleys.

He couldn't bask in his euphoria for long however, he noticed the time… he had tutoring in like five minutes! "Ack! Gotta run, bye!" He yelled back as he ran from the cafeteria… every once in a while he would let out an enthusiastic 'whoop' and pump his fist in the air. He was sure that most of the Unspeakables that saw his performance though he was crazy… but he knew better than them. He didn't think he was crazy, he _knew_ he was crazy.

Harry was still grinning from ear to ear when he reached his temporary office in the Research Department.

His newest tutor, Professor Tofty, got up and introduced himself as Harry entered the office. "I've never seen anybody so enthusiastic about charms, it will be a pleasure teaching you Mr. Potter," Proffessor Tofty announced upon observing Harry's mood.

Harry never let his smile falter, which, in hindsight, probably made him seem slightly more deranged than he actually was. "Actually Professor, I'm just happy about the news… though charms sound good about now." Anything sounded good right now to Harry. He doubted that Snape could bring him down from the cloud he was sitting on.

"Good, because I was talking to Professor Marchbanks," oops, that did it… Harry's cloud popped from underneath him like a balloon, "and she suggested a few methods that seemed to work well for you. If you would please open your book to page two-thousand three-hundred and seventy-three then we can begin."

Harry sighed and flipped open the gigantic book… which was a feat in itself… this was going to be another long afternoon. At least he had the weekend to look forward to.


	10. The Dark Lord

Disclaimer: I didn't write Harry Potter... I swear. Just don't make me eat the cat poop!

Authour's Note: Ahem... I'm now done with my AP testing so I'mmuch less stressed out. This chapter has some important parts in it... they should be fairly obvious. I also included a little scene that I cut out because it had absolutely no point... I just though it was funny. Anyway, it's marked like - where it should go in the chapter.

* * *

His most faithful servants surrounded him, well, those that weren't in prison. He must do something about that soon, they were each valuable assets… even if they couldn't complete a simple task without his assistance. He needed to send a message, one the boy wouldn't forget… his parents had defied him as well, but he wasn't about to let a mere fool of a child disrupt his path to immortality.

The boy's friends were too well protected, Dumbledore and his Order had made sure of that. It wouldn't be worth losing any of his remaining skilled Death Eaters on such a hopeless mission… Many people perceived Voldemort as an insane, bloodthirsty madman… but he was not. Well even he would admit that he was insane, yet he was also intelligent and calculating. No, he would not waste any of his followers on the boy's closest friends.

There had to be a way… something that would break the boy… something that would let him know that he was out of his league, but what? He knew that the boy couldn't be touched while he was at his relative's home… he'd tried. He could have broken the wards surrounding the home but it would have taken too much energy and Dumbledore was sure to notice the wards failing. No, the boy was safe for the time being.

Hogwarts, the school was the boy's second home… his true home. Just as it had been his own. Hogwarts was one of his ultimate goals… to reclaim his home… the only place that he'd belonged. It would have to wait though; there was much to be done before he was ready to take the fight to the old man.

Still… he must do something soon, if a mere boy could challenge him then his followers may soon begin to do so as well. While part of him knew that this thought was ridiculous, the other was extremely paranoid. Without his servants, he would not be able to match Dumbledore.

What did the boy care about? He was an enigma… he held no love for his relatives… he could not be attacked directly, nor would destroying the boy's image cause him any disparity. He could act without repercussions from the Ministry… and the boy hardly made a mistake! What could he do that would affect him? The boy's parents had been almost as troublesome… at least he had removed the threat that they posed to his regime… the Potters were powerful enemies. If only he could have swayed their allegiance from Dumbledore… why, if he'd been able to do that then he might already be immortal.

Becoming immortal was his other goal… Growing up in an orphanage because his dirty muggle father had rejected him had changed him. He was beaten and ignored, cast aside by his father and abandoned by his mother, and he was rejected by the wizarding world because of his 'dark magic.' Some may contemplate suicide… when one doesn't belong anywhere. Voldemort was different though; he did not want to become an icon… a figure whose story would be alluded to years in the future. No, he wanted to live forever… a constant reminder to those who had repressed him that he was not a beaten little boy anymore. They would regret, he would make them regret… just like he'd done to the boy's parents.

His parents… they had come to his mind at least two or three times…

Of course!

"Bellatrix," he announced, turning to where he knew she would be standing in the circle, "I have… a task for you…"

* * *

Harry woke up with his scar burning. He'd had another dream of Voldemort… was it real… or was it another fake.

Like last time…

Sirius.

"Stop!" he yelled out to himself, he still wasn't ready to go there. This dream from Voldemort was more important anyway…

The dream wasn't fake, he was in Voldemort's mind this time… could hear his thoughts. There was something about his parents… and Hogwarts. He couldn't remember any of it clearly… his head was pounding too hard. It was important though. He knew it was… Voldemort was planning something, not like that was anything new.

Once he'd gotten his breathing under control, Harry got out of bed. There was no way he'd be able to get back to sleep with so much on his mind, besides, he was scheduled to take his apparition test later today… and he didn't really know all of the restrictions on apparition. He didn't realize that there were actually laws governing the form of transportation… and more importantly, that he actually had to know them! But, when he'd told his roommates about his test, they'd told him how grueling the written portion of it was. He didn't even know there was a written portion!

-

* * *

The test was extremely easy… it was all common sense. He guessed that his roommates had only wanted to scare him. The hardest question had something to do with apparating while on a moving object. Harry just guessed on that one, it wasn't like it was important or anything. His favorite question had been, 'Describe, in a short paragraph, the proper course of action to be taken upon finding that you've mistakenly apparated on top of a muggle.' A few of the other people taking the exam seemed a bit miffed at his childish giggling. There was one guy who reminded him of Crabbe… but older. The large man was chewing on his quill, deep in concentration, for about an hour after everyone else had finished. Eventually the proctor had to call time because the man was taking so long… apparently he'd been stuck on the same question the whole time.

The practical apparition test was also pretty simple. The examiner would give you a destination, one that you'd been to before, and would follow you after you'd apparated. The only downside was that it was pouring outside… and Harry was soaked by the end of the practical. His examiner had dried himself off, but left Harry high and… wet. The jerk! And since he didn't have his waiver to use magic yet, that was his next stop, he couldn't dry himself off.

So, it was urgency fueled by wetness that Harry made his way through the Ministry, heading towards the Improper Use of Magic division of Magical Law Enforcement. The lift stopped at the second level and Harry exited the cramped elevator. Outside of the Department of Mysteries, he was getting all sorts of stares from admirers… and that creepy looking old man. He just ignored them for the most part, besides, if these people worshipped him so much… why wouldn't any of them dry him off!

He passed through the Auror's headquarters but didn't see anybody that he recognized. He was a bit relieved that he wouldn't have to explain his presence to any of the Order members.

Finally, he came upon the door, the door to freedom to use his magic at will, the door to independence, the door to dryness! It was like a shining beacon of hope in the… not so dark corridor. His breath quickened along with his pulse, through this door was a new life. The door was slightly warm to the touch, comforting in the cool hallway. Even the squeaky noise that the door made when it opened sounded like angels singing hymns to his ears. But, maybe he was being a bit overdramatic… the plump witch sitting at the reception desk certainly didn't look like any angel.

"May I help you?" The chubby woman said from behind a magazine, her voice could have been Umbridge's.

Harry shivered, "Yeah, I'm here to pick up my license for underage magic. I've already submitted the…" Harry zoned out for a moment, there was a fly circling the lady's head and it was distracting him, "err... paperwork and everything." Well, he hadn't done the required interview… but he had special privileges now.

"Fifth office on the right," she said simply and without looking up from whatever she was reading.

Harry was happy to be out of the woman's presence, she was ruining the mood entirely. After just a few words with her, he was left feeling slightly depressed. He stopped before the fifth door in the short hallway and knocked; since he doubted that Dumbledore or Moody ran this office, he figured it would only be polite to do so. The door opened a moment later with a light squeak… that was annoying this time. Stupid receptionist.

There was an old man behind a desk… who looked as if he'd been sleeping. If the red marks on his face didn't give it away, there was a large drool spot on some of the papers covering his desk. He blinked and tried to yawn inconspicuously. "Can I help you?" Before Harry could tell him why he was there, the old man spoke again, "oh, you must be Mr. Potter… I've got what you need right here. I don't really get many people coming in here… so I was able to whip up your license in no time," he rummaged through his papers for a moment. Thankfully, nothing handed to him was covered in slobber… that would have been awkward.

"You need to sign right there," the old guy said and handed him a quill. Harry wished the old man wouldn't talk… his breath smelled.

After signing he received a little card, his license, for all of his trouble. He was lucky and the old man didn't say much besides instructing him to refer to the Ministry's guidelines for using magic before he broke some obscure law and required a stay in Azkaban.

And with that, he was gone.

He appeared back in his room and dried himself off… finally.

Harry grabbed a couple of his books and took them out to the living room… he had about 32 hours until Monday to study… and he would probably need a good bit of that time if his first two lessons were anything to go by.

Of course as soon as he sat down studying was forgotten, his dream from last night took over his thoughts.

He wondered if he should owl Dumbledore, if Voldemort was thinking about Hogwarts… well it certainly couldn't mean anything good for the school. Unless Voldemort had decided that ruling the world as an immortal demon lord was overrated at least. Yeah, like that would ever happen… Ron would tell Hermione about his imaginary cat, Slippers, before Voldemort stopped being evil.

His parents were another matter altogether. They were dead… right? They were the last time he'd checked. What could Voldemort do to them? He didn't want to imagine what kind of twisted, malicious thoughts were running through the Dark Lord's head… but he couldn't help himself. Harry didn't think it was possible to bring back the dead, of course, at one point he hadn't believed in magic either. Yet, he doubted that Voldemort would want to bring back two of his greatest adversaries. There had to be something else.

He could be planning some advanced, dark ritual that would most likely cause Harry to die. Or maybe he hoped to learn what had caused his curse to rebound off of Harry, causing his… err… first death.

Whatever it was, Harry knew one thing. The Dark Lord was-

Somebody apparated in, interrupting Harry's train of thought. He was a short, balding man… with a handlebar moustache. His ears also seemed to be rather large; perhaps a healer could shrink them like Pomfrey had done for Hermione's teeth.

Harry wondered if he should consider this guy as a threat… but found out otherwise when the confused, and strange looking, man spoke, "Um, who are you?"

"Harry Potter."

This made the man even more confused apparently, "Harry Potter?"

Now Harry was puzzled as well, he'd figured that pretty much everyone in the wizarding world knew who he was. He wasn't being egotistical… it's just that he'd never met anybody who didn't know all about him. "Yeah, you know… Dark Lord tried to kill me… gave me some stupid scar. Also, I'm pretty sure they wrote books about me… at least that's what I've been told. Never actually seen one."

The odd little man laughed, "Oh, goodness me, I know all about you. I'm just baffled as to why you're sitting in my living room." See! Even this guy knew about him.

"Oh, I've been recruited by the Unspeakables and just moved out of my Uncle's house the other day. You must be Bernie, the others told me that you were out on some mission." He wished that they'd told him how odd the man looked. Those ears could probably pick up the Wizarding Wireless Network.

Bernie nodded his balding head, "Yep, that me alright. I'd tell you about my mission, but its classified information. I mean we can't exactly spread around all the rituals that Voldemort undertook to achieve near immortality. Then everyone would start doing it!"

Harry was surprised at how this guy gave up his secret so easily… He decided to employ his 'Hagrid manipulation tactics' in order to get something else from the man. "Yeah," Harry said, agreeing to Bernie's earlier statement, "imagine all the fuss of having all of these near immortals running around all over the place." It was always important to act like you knew more than you did, and to keep agreeing with whatever the other person said. When you used both of these together a person would spew out their deepest, darkest secrets… and probably never realize what they'd done.

"Oh, and that's not all," Harry smiled at the man's willingness to part with classified intelligence, "think of all the dead muggles… plus its nearly impossible to kill someone who's been through some of these rituals."

Harry nodded in agreement again, "I hear you, if it was only as easy as a simple _Avada Kedavra_." He was taking a risk now. For all he knew, another _Avada Kedavra_ might be able to kill the Dark Lord.

"No, most of these rituals wouldn't be worth the effort if they didn't protect against that curse… I'd like to continue talking about the theory behind immortality rituals with you, but I really need to go over the notes we recovered from Malfoy Manor." Then the little man waddled out of the room, leaving a thoughtful Harry behind.

This man may be able to help him devise a way to defeat Voldemort, no matter how strange he looked.

* * *

Deleted Thingamajig.

-

Harry was about to go take a shower when inspiration struck… he knew that after he took a shower he'd have breakfast. Most likely, the house elf would have it all laid out for him. But what if he ate breakfast first? It might be early enough to catch the elf by surprise.

He really had no idea why he decided to antagonize the complex's house elf, but chalked it up to lack of sleep. Harry crept slowly down the hallway, noiselessly. He had to sneak up on it while it was still making breakfast… if only to prove that the food didn't just magically appear every morning.

Noise. Coming from the kitchen!

The elf was real, not just a figment of him imagination… like Slippers, his imaginary cat.

This was his chance; he peeked around the doorframe. The house elf had it's back to Harry and was, as he had expected, cooking breakfast.

He'd done it! He'd seen the house elf! Mission accomplished… It seemed so pointless now. He was hoping for something exciting, something worth creeping down the cold hallway in the dark, painstakingly slowly. This was stupid; he was going to go take a shower.

On an impulse Harry jumped around doorframe and into the kitchen whilst screaming, "Gotcha!"

The house elf jumped and let out a squeaking, "Eep!" before disappearing with a small popping noise. Harry just laughed and went to take his shower.

* * *

Ok, I've had my fun. 


	11. The Art of Stealth

Disclaimer: If I've told you once... Oh, you weren't listening? Ok then, I don't own Harry Potter.

Author's Note: Phew, I finished this last night... but I wanted to read over it once or twice before I put it and I was too tired at the time. So, here it is.

* * *

Harry had spent the rest of his weekend going over the things that his tutors had assigned, and now he was fairly sure that he'd be ready for whatever they threw at him next. Of course, he still had no idea who his next instructor would be and how they would teach him. He wasn't all that worried though… Griselda Marchbanks could probably give Voldemort a run for his money, after her he was ready for anything. He briefly entertained the idea of getting Mrs. Marchbanks to start giving the Dark Lord lessons in transfiguration. Chances were, that after a few lessons, Voldemort would most likely kill himself.

It wouldn't work though… he was more inclined to kill the elderly tranfiguration teacher than himself… It was such a good idea too.

He had another tutoring session this afternoon… for potions. He hated potions. Before that, however, he was to report to training in the Task Force Department. He wondered if he was going to have to duel with any of the Unspeakables again… He felt that he'd only gotten lucky in beating Cutler. Besides, he didn't fancy getting his legs broken to pieces again.

Right now, he was on his way to said training…

Harry showed up in the room that was designated on his schedule… and nobody was there. He went back outside and checked that he was in the right place. He was. So where was everybody? Suddenly, there were a pair of hands covering his mouth… and he couldn't move! He tried to fight off the unseen enemy but was soon overpowered.

His vision went black as he felt the pull of a portkey on his naval.

When he came back to reality, he was sitting in a desk… in the room he'd been standing outside of. This was very strange. Why would somebody go to the trouble of kidnapping him just to move him about thirty feet away… to where he was going anyway… Only a Death Eater would be that stupid. But they hadn't killed him, maybe Voldemort wanted to give an evil villain monologue first, he liked doing that for some reason. It made him feel more powerful or something.

He got up and looked around; there was still nobody here.

Then somebody cleared their voice from behind him. Instantly his wand was… his wand… where was his wand? That couldn't be good.

Harry lunged at the man; he could still cause bodily harm without a wand, years of being slapped around by the Dursleys had taught him that at the very least. Of course, tackling somebody who can use magic is a bit harder… and Harry ended up floating harmlessly about two feet from the guy and glaring up at him. Despite his best efforts, Harry could not simulate the bassalisk gaze… It would have been useful though.

Whoever this was, they weren't interested in harming Harry. Here he was in a helpless position and the man was just watching him. It's not like he could do anything exciting… he couldn't even move. So he decided to ask him, "what are you waiting for?" He was still angry about this whole situation… so he sort of snarled it out. The tone would have been quite frightening if Harry weren't slowly rotating around in mid air, helpless to stop the movement, sort of like a rotisserie style chicken.

"Hmm? Oh, don't mind me, I'm just waiting for you to do something unexpected." The man's voice was sarcastic… but not like Malfoy's. Still, the guy was making fun of him? As if his current predicament wasn't degrading enough, this guy was mocking him as well. If only he had his… wand? His wand was in his hand.

He aimed it up at the man and was about to disarm him… but he dropped to the floor.

"That was interesting," the man mumbled, "manifestation of wandless magic… and at such a young age." He was walking away from Harry with his back turned. If Harry had been in Slytherin he would have cursed the man… Stupid Gryffindor nobility.

He turned around suddenly, "how long have you been able to do this… summoning your wand to yourself?" Harry didn't want to tell the guy… he didn't know anything about him. So he just settled for glaring at the man again. Surprisingly the man chuckled, "good, good… you don't trust me. Alastor would be proud."

This guy must know Moody! Harry didn't know any other Alastors so he figured that's whom he was talking about.

He continued his pacing. "Still," the man was talking to himself again, "even at this age… I suppose it's not so uncommon. This is something different though… it's almost intentional but not quite. Could be very useful." The man stopped again and looked at Harry, who was still sitting on the ground. "Were you thinking of achieving your wand or attacking me at the moment?"

Harry answered this time… so far the guy could have harmed him at any time. Besides, the question wasn't something deeply personal or even relatively important in Harry's opinion. "I wanted my wand… so that I could attack you." His anger had subsided a bit and was replaced by mild curiosity… was this some kind of test?

"Ah, so it was your wand… that is most definitely intentional…" this man had some sort of problem with thinking aloud, "though, I doubt that you were conscious of the plea. I'll study this more later." He addressed Harry again, "You may want to stand up as you're about to have to defend yourself."

Harry looked around as he got to his feet… defend himself from wha-

He ducked the curse that the man fired at him, then the next… wow they were coming fast. Harry dodged a bright yellow curse that traveled in a pattern that forked out like lightning from the man's wand and put up his strongest shield. This guy was powerful.

The first curse to slam into his shield didn't break it… but it did knock him into the opposite side of the room.

The second curse caused his shield to flicker out of existence but didn't have enough power left over to hit Harry.

The third hit Harry before he could even think of… much at all, he'd hit his head on the wall and his brain was still catching up to the action.

Harry was woken up a moment later by the mysterious man's muttering, "We'll have to work on that I suppose… It was a nice shield though, a good effort… good reflexes as well, that's very important."

His head hurt… he'd been knocked out twice this morning. "What's the big idea?" The man's affinity for causing Harry bodily harm was starting to get annoying.

He turned towards the boy, "Oh, well if I'm going to teach you then I've got to know what you're capable of don't I?"

"Couldn't you have just asked or something?" Harry whined… his head was still pounding. His question about this guy's identity was answered though… sort of. He was going to be his teacher. That meant that he was the Unspeakable who was retiring.

"No," the man said simply. He then proceeded to ignore Harry, who was sprawled out on the floor, and sit down at one of the desks on the opposite side of the room. Harry just groaned and got to his feet… then fell over again. His second try went much better though. He walked across the room and settled into a chair near the Unspeakable.

"So, are you going to introduce yourself or something… and are you going to suddenly attack me again?" Harry hoped he wasn't… please.

He looked up from his note taking, "Neil, and… possibly but not in the near future." Harry still couldn't see what Neil looked like… his hood had some kind of concealment charm on it. He knew that the man was older… because he was apparently 'past his prime' as Lukas had said. Harry wondered what he was like when he was at his best… the thought was a bit scary. Even though he hadn't seen the guy do much magic yet, he'd thrown Harry around the room with almost no effort… and snuck up on him twice.

Since Neil wasn't offering any more information about himself, Harry just sat and waited quietly while counting the bricks on the opposite wall… he was at two hundred and thirty nine when Neil cleared his throat to get his attention.

"Ok, from what I've seen, you are magically powerful, think well under pressure, and have good reflexes." Neil paused and sighed, "But we have a good deal to work on… You have almost no awareness of your surroundings; I have a report from your evaluation, which describes your stealth as 'abysmal.' Apparently you jumped through a glass window… and would have attracted the attention of your targets if they hadn't already been busy. Why did you not just simply vanish the glass? Also, you have a very low spell vocabulary… you use indistinct spells for tasks that would be much better accomplished with specific ones." Neil flipped to another page, "You have used wandless magic, that is a gift that we will attempt to harness. While it shouldn't be very powerful, it will most definitely come in handy." He straightened out all of the papers, "Right now we'll focus on stealth. Once you accompany me on a few missions without getting in the way we can work on everything else."

"Umm… Ok." Harry didn't know whether to be offended or complemented.

"You have the rest of the morning to do whatever you wish, we'll start training tomorrow." The older Unspeakable got up and left Harry in the room alone.

"Err… ok, that was odd" Harry said after Neil left. He didn't really have anything else to do this morning… so he could either go study for…he shivered, potions… or he could watch the evaluation group while they were training and see it anything interesting happened. He just hoped that he wouldn't be volunteered for another duel.

The entire group, including Allison and Walter, were in the same room as they'd been in on Friday. Harry could see the places where the stage had been fixed… and there was still a bit of blood spatter on the wall. That was a bit creepy. Whoever had done the reparations must've had a morbid sense of humor.

He sat down at one of the desks at the last row and listened in to their lesson, "…reason that we learn stealth in the first place." Gilesworth was on the stage giving a lecture, "It can be used in duels, it can be used in tracking, it can be used to _avoid_ duels, or it could be used to stay hidden. The point I'm trying to get to is that its an important advantage in just about any situation. I've got a few upper level TF squad members here to demonstrate a few of it's uses." As he finished his last statement, the places that he'd thought were new on the stage materialized into a group of four Unspeakables. He was waiting for the blood spatter to disappear as well… but it didn't.

"Do you see how this is advantageous? If you don't, then you can leave right now because you're not even worth the effort of training. Any one of you that had stepped on this stage might have been ambushed… you would have been stunned or dead before you could blink." He turned around and motioned for the Unspeakables to begin doing something… apparently to duel, as that's what they were setting up for. "In a dueling situation," Gilesworth began as they started hurling low-level curses at each other, "an enemy will rely on his sight first, then his hearing, and finally on his sense of magical presence. If you can mask any of these, you have an extreme advantage. It is much harder to hit the unseen enemy." Two of the Unspeakables melded into the wall and completely disappeared.

The other two threw up shields in the direction they thought the others had most likely migrated to. Of course, they had to alter their focus when curses started coming from random places throughout the room. "An illusion," Gilesworth began again, "can fill an enemy with disparity. If you make them think they are fighting a hopeless battle, then you _will_ win." The two shielded Unspeakables dropped as at the same time. The others immediately materialized next to each of the fallen and revived them as soon as they'd hit the ground. "I want each of you to look through the booklist that I prepared… tomorrow we're going to discuss the best methods of concealment for different situation and on Wednesday we'll begin practicing some of those methods." He was apparently finished because everybody packed up and started filing out of the room. Gilseworth didn't leave though; instead he walked over to where Harry was seated.

"So, Mr. Potter… did you enjoy the presentation? I'm sorry that you missed the beginning; there was a great performance by one of our top squad leaders on different types of shields. Even I didn't know there were so many," he smiled.

Harry really was impressed by what he'd seen, "Yeah, that was great. I didn't even realize that those were people hiding… I just thought that they were new pieces of the stage."

Gilesworth looked at him funnily but then shrugged. "I understand that you met Neil today. He's one of the best we've had in a long time…I hope he wasn't too rough on you."

"It was… err," Harry subconsciously rubbed his head where he'd hit the wall, "unique."

"Well, it was good to see you again. I hope I get the chance to actually sit down and talk with you some day… but right now I'm…" He checked his wristwatch, "about six minutes late for my next appointment." He waved and backed out of the door… once again leaving Harry alone in an empty room. He had a habit of being the last one to leave it seemed. By now it was about time for lunch so he headed in that direction.

He found an empty table easily enough as it was still a bit early, but he was soon joined by Allison. The rest of the evaluation group had also entered the cafeteria, most stayed in a single group but a few moved out on their own.

"I noticed that you were missing today," Allison said after she'd sat down. Harry was starting to get the feeling that she was a bit gossipy.

Harry nodded, "I'm getting personal training I guess. I showed up at the room that was on my schedule but no one was there…" He didn't want to tell her that he'd been knocked out by his new instructor, "then… err… my instructor came in. He said he was running a bit late." Phew, good save.

She seemed to accept his explanation as she moved on to a different topic, "Cutler's still upset over the duel. He's got a whole little club of 'Harry haters' now… I imagine they're all a bit put out by being demoted." She nodded her head toward a section of the lunchroom.

Harry followed her action and saw the group that she was talking about… Cutler was making wild motions with his hands and talking expressively about something, most likely Harry. He was dismayed to see that Walter was sitting with them… the Unspeakable had been all right after they'd fought together. "Whatever, I'm used to it by now… Cutlers just another Malfoy."

"By himself, Cutler isn't a threat, but with a following… well, its not like he'd attack you here. I guess you don't really have to worry about it, I'd still watch out for him though." With that she went back to her sandwich. The rest of his lunch passed uneventfully… he'd gotten used to glares of loathing back at Hogwarts… and Cutler's group were all amateurs. They must not have realized that he'd had to sit through potions with Snape leering at him all period.

At one point Walter stopped by Harry's table on his way out. He didn't act like he was mad at him… in fact; he was friendlier than he'd been during their evaluation. It made Harry a little suspicious, but he doubted that the Unspeakable would sell him out to Cutler's gang.

After lunch Harry met his potions tutor, Mr Westerbold… his hair wasn't greasy like he'd thought it would be. In fact, the man was very aristocratic looking… as was his speech, "Mr. Potter, the art of potion making is an extremely intricate process that must be undertaken with the utmost of care and attentiveness. You must understand each reaction implicitly and be able to recognize an erroneous action before it damages the final result."

Harry had a lot of trouble deciphering whatever language the man was spewing from his mouth… so most of his responses were along the line of, "Uh… sure thing."

All in all, it turned out to be another interesting day in Harry's life. He just hoped that tomorrow held a few less surprises… who was he kidding? He lived for the action! Even his very existence was highly improbable and generally unexpected! Who was he to complain about trivial things such as getting knocked out twice before lunch?


	12. Training Pains

Disclaimer: I. Don't. Own. Anything. Period.

Author's Note: This chapter was hard to write as if featured practically no dialogue... I had fun writing it anyway. Sorry I ddin't have it up sooner, I had AP tests last week, but I have final exams coming up in twoo weeks... ack! (for those of you who don't know what "ack!" means... well, consider it a sound of frustrated desperation). Anyways, I hope you enjoy it, it's a bit different from the other chapters... I hope it's not in a bad way.

* * *

Neil had spent all morning teaching Harry two things. One was the _disillusionment_ charm, which he still didn't get perfectly, and the other was a modified silencing spell. Contrary to the normal silencing spell, which was best used on people who just wouldn't shut up, the modified silencing spell could be used on objects as well. For example, if he had still been staying at the Dursley's, he could have used it on Dudley's radio… just for fun. Right now Harry was using both of these spells, which could be a bit tricky, in order to sneak into Minister Fudge's office.

Apparently Neil had a sense of humor.

After he'd mastered the spells enough to use them fairly consistently, Neil had given him his first task. The old man had a philosophy, "once these spells have saved your life, you'll never forget them… And if an auror catches somebody in the Minister's office they hex first and ask questions later." While Harry wasn't too fond of risking his life every time he learned a new spell… Neil's philosophy did sit with him better than Marchbanks'. The task that he'd been given was a 'simple one', in the words of the old man. He had to sneak in to the office, undetected by the numerous aurors posted at various points along the way, and switch the Minister's prepared speech… with one that the Department head had written.

The idea was almost laughable; maybe somebody more experienced would be able to do it, but him? No way!

But, here he was anyway, taking the lift up to the first level. Luckily everybody else had gotten off already and he was free to cast the _disillusionment_ spell without any awkward questions.

The lift stopped and the doors opened.

In front of him was a long, wide hallway covered in lavish carpets and portraits adorning the walls. There were also a few smaller hallways leading off of the main one, heading to various administrative offices. At the end of the main hall there was a set of huge double doors. From what Neil had told him, those led to the waiting and reception area before the Minister's personal office. The hardest part of this little task would be getting through that area unnoticed. It would be the most heavily guarded… and would also have the most obstacles to navigate.

There were no aurors positioned at the exit to the lift, which Harry thought was a bit strange. It was one of the only spots that everybody had to pass through to get into the Minister's office. Nevertheless, he had to practice… 'Constant Vigilance!' There could be guards posted around any corner, they might jump out at him from the shadows, or they may even spring from the ceiling and take him out without warning. For all he knew, the ministry had an entire department full of super, ninja warriors that were trained specifically to take out _disillusioned_ intruders… but he doubted it.

Someone was coming. Harry had just exited the lift when he'd heard the footsteps.

He quickly pressed up against the wall in order to steady himself. If he moved too much, he would leave a distorted outline of whatever was _disillusioned_ that was faintly noticeable. He also had to keep his breathing as silent as possible, he would have cast a _silencio_ on himself if he didn't think he might have to cast any spells later.

A lone auror came around the corner… The ornamentally, uniformed man looked around the 'empty' room in confusion for a moment whilst scratching his head. After he'd assured himself that nobody else was in the room, or appeared to be coming any time soon, he shrugged and walked off. Harry figured that he mustn't be a real auror. He knew that Moody certainly wouldn't have overlooked the arrival of a seemingly empty elevator… of course; Moody also would have been able to see through his concealment.

A few minutes after the man had left, Harry began creeping along the wall at a snail's pace. When he came to the first hallway, he peeked around quickly… there was nobody coming in his direction, though a few were moving between the offices further down the hall. He acted swiftly, rolling across the hall before anybody had the chance to happen upon him.

The distortion caused by the _disillusionment _looked strange when he moved quickly, it was like the colors were all blurred in the direction of his movement. The wall he had been hiding behind before seemed to bleed out into the empty air of the hallway. The effect faded rapidly however, and he was back on his way.

A few times he'd had to stop and wait for people to pass, the number of witches and wizards that he encountered increased the closer he got to the large double doors. Every once and a while an auror would pass him, patrolling the main corridor. These moments were his most tense, the aurors that passed him weren't like the first he'd encountered, these ones strode purposefully past him as their eyes took in every detail... well, _just about_ every detail. They were the real deal, the ones who'd been through years of training in order to keep the general public safe from criminals and dark wizards.

Eventually he was close to the door… he didn't know how long it'd taken, but his legs were sore from all of the crouching.

He waited for an opportune moment, if he slipped in behind just one or two people then the aurors inside, if there were any, would notice. He needed a large group… one like the group that was conveniently making their way down the hall at the moment. The group was comprised of a few people that he didn't know, Minister Fudge, and… Moody? He froze. This could be trouble; the retired auror was sure to see through his disguise… what was he supposed to do? If he moved, he would give away his position, and if he didn't move he'd be caught anyway. It was like trying to turn in a potion in Snape's class, no matter what he did, Snape found a way to fail him.

To his surprise, however, before he could make a decision they were already walking past him… Moody hadn't seen him? Maybe this was something that Neil had set up; he did mention something about 'Alastor' yesterday.

Harry decided not to waste the opportunity; he quickly moved through the door after them and pressed himself against another wall. They were all heading into Fudge's office, leaving Harry in the room with, from what he could see, about four aurors and a few other people milling about. The room itself was much like the hallway outside, except in here there were plush couches and tables spread about. It reminded Harry of the Gryffindor common room.

He had to get through _this_ room? Neil was looking more insane than Harry had originally thought. Directly in front of him was an empty center aisle, leading up to a receptionist's desk. To either side of the room, there were places set up for people to wait for an audience with the Minister. Harry figured that Fudge must have a pretty big head to make the room so large; half of Gryffindor could've fit in here comfortably with nobody having to stand. The large door to the Minister's office was directly behind the receptionist's desk… with an auror stationed stoically before it.

There was no way he'd get up the center, it was too open and people were constantly walking up and down and all around it. The only other choice was to, somehow, get through the maze of furniture and people in one of the waiting areas.

He began inching his way along the wall as slow as he possibly could towards the less populated side, hoping that nobody would notice the miniscule distortions from a distance.

It was working so far… of course; he'd only gotten about a foot from the door.

Two feet.

Somebody was looking, wait for a minute.

Three feet, four feet now, he had only a few more to go until he could duck down behind one of the couches.

He was there! Harry took a bit of a rest, wiped off the sweat that had formed on his brow, and got back to the task at hand. He should be able to move a bit quicker now that he didn't have to worry as much about being seen. He went ahead and crawled the length of the couch and under the end table sitting next to it.

Now, in front of him was an auror… well, an auror's feet. Wow, they smelled rancid. He wondered if the auror would notice if he cast a _scourgify_ on him, it would be doing the world a favor. He needed to do _something_… this guy was standing in his way of his next hiding spot, under a low coffee table.

Then he remembered one of the twins' prank spells… They'd been using it on him all day. He was actually about to go to see the nurse, no matter how embarrassing, when the twins stopped him. They taught it to him in repentance for causing him all kinds of awkwardness. It was the Farting jinx, used to cause the recipient to release uncontrollable flatulence for a few minutes. The jinx had been a load of trouble during Quiddich practice, and even worse during breakfast in the Great Hall. He remembered that Ron had thought the ham smelled a bit funny at the time.

Harry would have thanked the man… err… the man's feet. It was their inspiration that made him remember the spell, it really did cause some quite smelly gas. But, he was trying to be sneaky at the moment so the man would just have to settle for a bit of horrid stench.

"_Foetidus_," Harry whispered as quietly as he could whilst pointing his wand up at the man from under the end table. It took a few moments to set in, but soon the man was farting up a storm, Harry almost gagged from the stink of it, he had to cover his face with part of his robes in order to breathe properly. The auror reacted how Harry had anticipated. When the smell became too much he took off to… 'Patrol' the room.

After he'd made it under the table, Harry had to practically stuff his fist in his mouth to keep from laughing. Four years of aurour training defeated by a farting jinx.

When his fits finally subsided, Harry realized that he had a problem. There was no way he'd be able to move from under the table without being seen. From where he was now, he would have to crawl around one couch and through some empty space in order to get behind a large chair near the receptionist's desk.

What he needed was a distraction. The display he'd watched yesterday after meeting Neil had showed him how illusions could be used to divert somebody's attention away from you. But, the problem was that he didn't know how to make an illusion. There were other ways to distract somebody though, Harry's mere presence caused some people to stick their elbows in butter dishes… or there was that one time that some kid walked into a wall and nearly broke his nose.

He took in his current situation more completely; to do something like this he would need meticulous planning, to look over every possible outcome and calculate the amount of time he would have to cover the long distance before he was discovered… too bad he wasn't good at that sort of thing. But he looked anyway; any sort of plan was better than none at all, right?

The aurors were apparently bored out of their minds from doing nothing all day and were grouped in a corner of the room. Except for the one guarding the Minister's office, he was still standing in the same spot, trying to pick his nose unobtrusively. The receptionist was doing whatever it was that receptionists do all day behind their desks, most likely reading some cheesy romance novel. There were also a few people sitting on the other side of the room, flipping through newspapers or magazines on the couches. Harry saw that one of them was drinking a cup of something or other… if he could knock it over, then he might have enough time to get across the room while everybody was watching her fumble around with the mess.

Deciding to act on his hastily thought out plan before he could second-guess himself Harry whispered out a quiet _accio_, putting as little power into it as possible and willing it not to work properly. He didn't even know if the spell worked like that… He probably should have considered using a different spell, if the summoning charm worked then the cup would fly straight to him. That wasn't a good thing when you were trying to stay hidden. So much for a foolproof plan… Oh well, it was too late now.

To Harry's relief, and no small amount of surprise, the cup slipped out of the lady's hand just as she was taking a drink, causing the contents to pour all over her nice robes. In response, He immediately crawled as fast as he could, never once looking back, until he reached the chair. Wow, that was intense!

When he looked back, he sighed and shook his head at the stupidity of wizards. Out of all of the brains in the room, not one thought of using magic to clean her robes. There were two people getting napkins, one was conjuring up a cup of water and another was comforting the hysterical woman. Harry would be the first to admit that he'd forgotten he was a wizard on many occasions, but out of all of these witches and wizards, he'd have figured that at least one would think of using magic! For Merlin's sake, one of them conjured up a cup of water when they could have just cast a simple cleaning charm! Nevertheless, their collective lack of common sense had given him ample time to reach his destination, and for that he was thankful.

Actually, from the looks of it, he'd have enough time to get closer to the door.

And so he did.

Now he was in prime position to get in, all he had to do was wait for the group inside to exit. Harry was surprised at how simple it was to break into one of the wizarding world's most secure places. If he could do it, then what was to stop anybody that was trained more thoroughly in the arts of stealth? He supposed that he'd been able to skip a few layers of security by bypassing the entrance level, but still… it was pretty sad that a 15-year-old boy with minimal education could assassinate the Minister of Magic on a whim if he wanted.

He'd been waiting for only a few minutes when the entire group exited, Moody was complaining about something in his gruff voice, "…tracked him right up the alley, he was stickin' out like a sore thumb. And where were your men? I'm retired, out of practice and all… and I still caught up to him before your group knew what was goin' on. You've got ta' think like a dark wizard, that's how they think, dark the lot of em'. Harry waited until they were a good distance away before casting a silencing spell on the door. If it made any noise, the guard posted nearby would be alerted.

Once he was sure that nobody was watching the door, he slipped in quickly and shut it behind himself. There was nobody in the office, he could move around as much as he wanted… which was a relief after all of his earlier creeping about. This room, much like the one outside, could have belonged to Godric himself. It was Gryffindor through and through… which was a bit scary considering who worked in it. There were very few personal effects; a few pictures of family and such, nothing at all like the headmaster's office at Hogwarts. A few filing cabinets and bookshelves lined the wall and there was a large fireplace framed by two big windows. In the center of the room was Fudge's heavy wooden desk and a few conference chairs.

According to Neil, the speech was in the uppermost drawer on the left side of the Minister's desk.

Harry wondered why Neil, while in position to get his hands on the Minister's speech, didn't switch the papers himself… but he chalked it up to laziness. Anyways, he quickly rifled through the drawer, noting a few of the papers' headings, until he found the document that he was looking for. Upon picking it up, he discovered something much more interesting than the previous sheets. It was an invoice… vaguely detailing a few purchases from Borgin and Burkes, the shady shop in Knockturn Alley. A reporter would have a field day with this piece of evidence! He decided on an impulse to take the paper with him before switching the speeches and apparating out with a slight cracking sound. The Ministry was warded against apparating in, but not out.

Well, that was fun. He wondered what his next mission would be. If breaking in to the Minister of Magic's personal office was his first training task then what would he be doing tomorrow?


	13. Let the Pranking Begin!

Disclaimer: The author of this work is in no way responsible for any injury that may result from the reading of this... Oh, wrong disclaimer. I don't own Harry Potter.

Author's Note: Wow, lately I've been getting all kinds of feedback. If I don't reply to your reviews it's because I feel the best way to reply is by working on the next chapter (I swear I'm not cheating my way out of replying to all of those reviews). Anyways, it's time for Harry to start training his butt off... but don't worry, he'll still have a few laughs along the way.

* * *

"Can you tell me what you did wrong?" Neil asked. It was the morning after Harry's big foray through the Ministry. He'd just arrived at their normal classroom, and already the older man was assaulting him with questions. Can't a guy get a break?

Harry was a little offended; he'd accomplished the mission hadn't he? He may have done a few things wrong, but in the end it had all come together. "I don't know," he responded shortly.

Neil waved the reply off, "I didn't think you would. You actually preformed very well, but the few mistakes you made could have been fatal in a different situation." He paused to let the words sink in. "First, you did not have a plan. You could have easily been caught while deciding upon the proper course of action, as your mind was not focused. Second, you were not aware of your surroundings at all times. In fact, I had to _oblivate_ one auror twice before he alerted the others to your presence." This made Harry's brain stop working for a moment.

"Wait," Harry held up his hand and blinked in confusion for a moment, "you were there?"

The old man chuckled, "You didn't think that you snuck in to one of the most secure places in the wizarding world by yourself did you? The first guard you encountered, had I not confounded him, would have caught you. No, you have a lot to learn before attempting such a feat on your own." Harry was floored… Neil had been there the whole time? He hadn't even gotten so much as a hint of the older man's presence… Neil must be _very_ good at this stealth stuff. "Now, let's continue," Harry groaned, he'd hoped that there were only two fatal errors… "Third, your choice of spells was atrocious. Though, I suppose that your repertoire is rather limited at the moment. And finally, you underestimated your opponent."

That last one couldn't be true… he'd been ready to take on elite ninja warriors, those aurors didn't live up to his expectations at all. If anything, he'd _over_estimated them. But, Harry knew it would be pointless to argue, Neil would most likely prove him wrong through some backwards logic… and make him think that he was wrong in the first place as well.

"Now, what we are going to do," Neil continued after listing off Harry's shortcomings, "is go over your mission, step by step, and find ways to improve your decisions. Also, I have a list of various spells that I find useful, you _will _learn them by the end of next week. I don't care if you have to practice by sneaking up on your house elf in the morning or by blowing craters in your yard… you willlearn them and in return, they will save your life."

Harry gulped as he looked over the long list that Neil had compiled, there were at least twenty spells and brief descriptions on each… he'd never heard of any of them.

"Don't get discouraged yet, I've saved some of the harder ones for us to work on in the mornings" Harry could hear the laughter in the evil old man's voice.

The rest of that morning had been spent going over the complicated _Tego_ spell. It could be used to hide just about any inanimate object, and was a predecessor of the _Fidelius _charm. Unlike the more complicated spell however, the _tego_ didn't make an object unplottable, and could be found by anybody. Harry hadn't managed to hide anything yet… but Neil hadn't expected him to. The charm was immensely difficult, but immensely useful as well. It was like the _Mobli_ spell in the case that it was used as a prefix for whatever you wanted to hide. Instead of moving a body with _moblicorpus_, he could hide one with _tegocorpus_ for example.

Of course, as it could only be used on inanimate objects, that body would have to be dead.

After lunch he'd had Defense tutoring with Mr. Pibb… for some reason, that name sounded vaguely familiar to Harry, but he didn't know why. He was a little upset about having a tutor for the subject, as he thought that he got enough training with Neil, but he figured that it couldn't hurt in the long run. The tutoring was different than his other subjects because Mr. Pibb focused mainly on practical aspects, which made sense, as he was a retired hit-wizard.

By the end of the day, Harry was dead tired… and all he wanted to do was flop into bed, but he had loads of studying to do. As soon as he sat down at his desk however, he was sidetracked by the paper he'd pulled out of the Minister's desk. The invoice from Borgin and Burkes… it could be used to discredit the Minister even more, but why was Fudge shopping there anyway?

He looked over the page, trying to figure out what the man was buying and why.

**'Borgin and Burkes, Provider of Quality Merchandise Since 1473 B.C.'**

Purchase:_ Mr. Fudge_ Vault Number:1,237-D Vault Key: xxx-xxxxxx

One, Untitled (Book - Ritual) – 25,000 Galleons, _One, Untitled (Book - Ritual) – 27,500 Galleons, _One, Necros (Book) – 42,000 Galleons,

_One, Untitled (Book – Potions) – 12,375 Galleons, __Thirteen, Premixed Polyjuice (Potion, sm.) – 2,500 Galleons,_

_Two, Concealment Cloak (lg.) – 600 Galleons, __Five, Cruento Stone (med. quality, sm.) – 500 Galleons, __One, Ritual Basin – 7,550 Galleons,_

_One, Dagger (Ritual) – 4,700 Galleons_

Subtotal: 122,725 Galleons

Other Transactions:

_Seventeen, Books – Trade – 50,000 Galleons, _Two, Rings (Artifact) – Trade – 15,025 Galleons

Subtotal: _-65,025 Galleons _Total: _57,700 Galleons _Signed: _Cornelius Fudge 7-12-96 _Paid: _Gringotts Bank Note_

While it was fairly vague, the Minister's transactions obviously pointed towards dark activities. He was spending a _lot_ of money on books, two of them on rituals, which were deemed illegal by the Ministry of Magic. Another thing caught his attention as well, the date. Fudge's purchases coincided with the date of the article in the Daily Prophet, the one describing the raid on Malfoy Manor. He was either doing Malfoy's job, or covering up for the Death Eater. But, from the other purchases, it looked as if the Minister was planning on going into hiding… maybe the books were for himself and not for Voldemort. The other transactions made it seem like the man was either trying to get rid of some incriminating evidence, or he was merely attempting to bargain for a lower price on the already outrageously high bill. Why would he be selling off some dark objects only to buy more though?

It didn't matter, it was clear that the Minister was up to no good. Harry decided to show the document to Neil before sending it off to the Prophet; he might be able to convince Mr. Lovegood to use it in the Quibbler as well. Right now however, he _really_ needed to study… he had Marchbanks for tutoring tomorrow.

* * *

The week had passed quickly, each day was pretty much routine by now. He'd wake up, train with Neil, eat lunch, go to torturing… err… tutoring, and then go back to his room and study until he fell asleep. He had finally mastered the _Tego_ spell this morning as well as a few of the easier ones on Neil's list and his magic was responding better overall since his theory training in Transfiguration and Charms. It all balanced out in the end, he got his brain and body beaten upon all day, but in return, he was actually making some quick progress… which was good because he only had five more weeks before his N.E.W.Ts.

He'd shown the invoice to Neil yesterday morning, the older man had looked through it before making a copy and sending it to one of his contacts… He wouldn't tell Harry who the person was, but apparently they were high enough in the Prophet hierarchy to get a story run on it. The other copy, he sent to the research department. They were looking for any information that could give them an idea of what rituals that Voldemort had used to gain so much power. That whatever Fudge was doing required cruento stones, which were used to soak up and concentrate blood into a solid form, and a ritual dagger and basin narrowed down the list of possibilities.

Harry had also asked Neil about Moody yesterday. The fact that the retired auror seemed to overlook him was strange and he was sure that the old Unspeakable had something to do with it. Neil's response didn't surprise him, but it was fairly interesting.

Neil had been in Moody's graduating class at the auror academy and they'd become friends after relying on each other through the countless missions they'd had to endure. Both at the top of the class, they were approached by the Unspeakables. But Moody turned the offer down while Neil joined. In the end, they kept in contact with one another and still called each other up for favors. The fact that Moody knew Neil was an Unspeakable pretty much assured Harry that the man knew what he was up to as well. After all, if Neil had been following Harry around at the Ministry, Moody was sure to have seen them together at some point.

Today had been like every other day, though maybe a bit less eventful, and he was looking forward to the weekend… when he might be able to schedule some time for relaxation in between his strict study regimen. He apparated back to his room after his tutoring session, Potions again... even after receiving tutoring in the subject from a competent teacher, he still hated it. Not that he wasn't getting better, he was… but he just couldn't get all excited over chopping up frogs' eyes and mixing them with some poisonous plant's roots inside of a sheep's bladder. Mr. Westerbold seemed to have a lot of fun sifting through bat poop though.

He couldn't wait to put his newfound knowledge to good use, and by 'good use' he really meant playing pranks on his roommates. Besides, having some fun with these spells may help him retain them… right? Who cares, fun was fun… and as long as he was practicing the spells, he was _technically_ studying.

He snuck slowly into the bathroom, never making a sound, if anybody knew that he was back from the Ministry then everything would be ruined. He knew this prank was childish and easily countered, but he was still learning. In a few months he'd be able to pull a good one… but making all of the toilets disappear would have to do for now. Besides, that wasn't the only thing he was planning.

"_Tegolatrina_," Harry whispered out as he came upon the first porcelain throne. He'd never tried to hide an object so large, but he was fairly confident that he could do it. His concerns were eased when the toilet flickered out of existence… After his first success, he quickly repeated the spell for the remaining ones until the bathroom appeared to be toilet-less. Mission accomplished, he apparated back to his room, hopefully nobody would notice that he'd already entered the complex and would think that he'd just arrived.

He went in to the kitchen, made himself a plate, and sat down at his usual spot… so far, so good. It didn't look like anybody expected anything. In fact, everything was just about the same as it was every other night… Jameson was in the middle of one of his countless stories and the others were all laughing their heads off. "…But, we didn't know that… so here we are, climbin' this ladder when 'bout half way up it just disappears! Of course, I was on the bottom so now I'm stuck under the other two and they ain't movin' so what's a guy to do? When we was all up Fred says, 'hey Jameson, how're we supposed to get up there without no ladder?' and I tell 'im, 'What we gotta do is float each other up, one at a time.' Now, at the time, it sounded like a fine plan, so we all get ready and Smitty says that he'll go first 'cause he's the smallest." Harry could tell that the others were getting really in to the story now, as nobody was paying any attention to their food… which left it open to attack.

After a few quick charms, courtesy of the twins, Harry tuned back into Jameson's story, "…finally got 'him up to the top when he yells down to us that he thinks he sees the beast. Now, he's way up there… if he'd have fell from up there, there'd be nothing left. But I was getting too tired and was 'fraid to drop 'im so I says, 'Smitty, grab that branch so I don't drop ya, can't hold this spell much longer.' And he grabs on and says 'OK James, you can let up now.' So I do, and I sit down and take a breather. I'm sittin there for a few when I hear Smitty screamin, me'n Fred look up and there's this big owl peckin' away at him and he's tryin' not to fall off. Fred sends a spell up to bring the guy down, but he keeps missin.' Then Smitty starts fallin and now we're all screamin' because if he hits that ground, then it's good bye Smitty." Jameson paused for effect and now even Harry was on the edge of his seat…

"So me'n Fred are both throwing spells like madmen but Smitty keeps fallin until he's got about fifteen feet to go and Fred finally lands one on 'im. But that owl comes back again and takes the wand right outta Fred's hand. Lucky I was right underneath Smitty to break 'is fall… 'course he broke my arm as well. So here we are, me with a broken arm, Smitty's shakin' like a leaf, and Fred's got no wand when Angie come over. She says, 'I heard all the screamin' and came running… did you get 'im down yet?' and Smitty says back to her, 'Angie, th-there ain't no cat up in th-that tree,' and he points up to the tree. She just looks us over and shakes her head and says, 'That's 'cause he's up in _that_ tree,' and she points to the tree right next to it… and sure enough, there's Whiskers, sittin about twenty feet up and staring down at us." When he was done, everybody was howling with laughter, even Harry who'd come in half way through the tale.

The laughter died down long enough for Jacob to take a bite out of his meatloaf… and then it started back up again when he sprouted antlers. Harry just calmly stood up and made his way out of the room… once they all realized that he'd pranked them, they were sure to retaliate. He had just cleared the doorway when more laughs erupted from the crowd… he subconsciously quickened his pace… Jack was already balding, he wouldn't miss the rest of it would he?

Once his room was locked… and warded against intrusion with every spell that he knew, he relaxed a little. He noticed that the new issue of the Quibbler, which came out every other week, was sitting by his window… Hedwig must've picked it up, or maybe another owl delivered it while he was at dinner. He was a little anxious to read it… he loved being able to look at the articles from two perspectives, somebody who knows they're true, and somebody who _knows_ that they're made up.

Harry didn't have to look for long to find an article that mentioned him... Actually, he was the main focus of the article.

**Harry Potter, Boy-Who-Lived No More?**

By Stu Pedman

_A recent interview with an auror caused this reporter to investigate the mysterious disappearance of Harry Potter, better known as, The Boy Who Lived. It is well known through out the wizarding world that Harry Potter seems to disappear at the end of every school year, and it is also well known that Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Albus Dumbledore, know where he goes. In an effort to confirm the death of Harry Potter, I confronted Dumbledore with the question of the boy's whereabouts. The Headmaster's reply gave me all of the evidence I needed. "I'm afraid that I can't give you that information," he said. It is obvious from this casual remark that the old wizard is trying to hide the fact that Harry Potter is no longer among the living. Well aware that the general public would not accept this on such minimal evidence, I investigated further._

_Again, I confronted the auror, Calvin Hobbes, who'd provided the preliminary inspiration. Mr. Hobbes was on security duty for the Minister's personal office on Tuesday, July 16th when he saw Harry Potter's ghost. "I was alert and ready for anything, anything but this," he told me, "the Minister himself had just come in the room when the ghost seemed to walk straight through the wall!" As you all know, being able to walk through walls is a common indicator that one is, in fact, a ghost. By now, I was convinced that Harry Potter was no more, yet I continued the questioning in hopes of finding out more about his demise. I was not disappointed. "Then I lost him for a while. I though that maybe I'd just imagined it, when there he was! He came up from under the floor and pointed his wand at me before disappearing again! I never saw him after that, I got a case of the nerves and took a stroll across the room to settle myself down. Harry Potter, I never would've thought that he was dead, but I saw him with my own two eyes. I'm surprised that the Ministry hasn't let it out yet, I guess they're trying to keep it under wraps." Mr. Hobbes version of the events proved to me, beyond a doubt, that Harry Potter was dead, but it left me with two questions. Why is Harry Potter haunting the Ministry of Magic, and when will the Ministry let the secret out?_

For the second time that night, Harry was engulfed in howls of laughter.


	14. Now You See Me

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Harry Potter

Author's Note: Well, I finally updated. It would have been much sooner, but I've been extremely busy lately. I don't know when you can expect the next chapter, but I hope it will be soon. Now that my basement isn't flooded and I have my computer back, I'm moved in to my new house, and I'm getting done with my college and bank paperwork, I may be able to update regularly. Until then, enjoy. And thanks to all of you who've given me reviews.

* * *

It was three weeks later that Harry finally got the chance to go on his first mission with Neil. Three grueling weeks of brain wracking tutoring sessions and training scenarios, but even he could see his improvement. It was amazing what a bit… well, a lot of hard work could do. The personalized training he was getting was making him progress at an alarming rate. For example, he was at about the same level that Cutler was when they'd last dueled… not in experience or power, but he could look back on the duel and see the mistakes that each of them had made and improve upon them. The fact that Cutler was lazy and took classes in a large group had dramatically hampered his training, but the Department of Mysteries just didn't have enough manpower to individually instruct each trainee. If they did, Harry doubted that he'd be anywhere close to the young Unspeakable's level. 

Neil was finally allowing Harry to accompany him on a mission because he'd deemed that the young man was competent enough to stay out of the way effectively. Harry really didn't like the sound of it, but he was too excited about seeing the older man in action to care very much. Plus, Neil had said that this wasn't supposed to be a very dangerous mission, just a quick attack on a low ranking Death Eater's home. The only reason that another Department wasn't taking the job was that they didn't have any set plan; their informant had only given them the Death Eater's location the day before. Plus Neil had also requested an easy mission for the purpose of training him, but Harry liked to ignore that part.

Not much had happened since his stroll through the Minister's office… well, unless you counted Minister Fudge's mysterious disappearance as newsworthy. After a few more articles had appeared in the Prophet, Fudge's office was found empty… with only a brief note addressed to the generally public, confirming their suspicion.

_The Dark Lord's power knows no bounds, only a fool would dare stand before him._

_Am I, therefore, weak for submitting to His will? would you condemn me?_

_Cornelius Fudge_

When his office was found abandoned, aurors were dispatched to all of his known properties… most of them were found empty as well. The Minister of Magic had just vanished from the wizarding world, not leaving any trace of his whereabouts. Of course, it didn't matter in the long run as he was replaced by a temporary stand in a few days later…

All of that was in the past however; right now Harry was on his way to one of the briefing rooms before heading out with Neil. He opened the door to the room and found the older Unspeakable hovering above various diagrams, blueprints of the house they were invading.

"Come over here and take a look," The old unspeakable said.

The diagrams were extremely detailed, even going so far as to display every piece of furniture found in each room. The house itself, while not overly large, was fairly big. From what he could see, Harry guessed that it would be about twice the size of the Dursley's home. "We'll have to do with these, they're all we could get on such short notice," Neil said, gesturing towards the large stack of diagrams.

"You mean there's normally more than this?" Harry was a bit skeptical, what more could you put on paper than this… He noticed that the chart even mapped out the locations of the pictures hanging on the walls, as well as indicating whether or not they were magical in nature.

"Of course there is, we normally have the wards and magical residue levels recorded as well. Oh, and a complete index of items and their locations." Seeing Harry's slightly bewildered look, Neil elaborated. "For example," He said, "if we'd had more time to snoop around, I'd be able to tell you what could be found in each drawer, on every shelf, or under any of the beds. You'd be surprised at how often people hide dark magical artifacts underneath their socks."

Harry was stunned, that kind of detailed information would take… weeks to obtain. Right? Well, if what they had for his upcoming mission was collected in only one day, then maybe it wouldn't take as long as he'd originally thought. This was the Department of Mysteries after all…

"What we're gong to do," Neil said, snapping Harry out of his musings, "is enter through this window." He designated the window in question. It was on the second floor of the house, in one of the unused guest rooms. "That is of course, after we determine what security wards are placed on it and break through them. Once we're in, I want you to wait while I make a quick scan of the house. If our target isn't there, I'll place a few proximity wards that will alert us when he arrives. If he is home, I'll return to the room you're in and walk you through the mission." Harry didn't like the fact that he was pretty much doing nothing… just sitting in some empty room and waiting, but there wasn't anything he could do about it.

Neil began organizing the papers scattered about the table and stopped suddenly. "Oh, one more thing, if something doesn't go to plan, I want you to lay low in that room. If the situation looks bad enough, then I want you to get out. There is no sense in either of us getting hurt on this mission, it's not very important in the grand scheme of things." Harry nodded in agreement, thought he knew that he wouldn't leave Neil to fend for himself… no matter that the old man could hold his own far better than Harry could.

A few minutes, and a couple of apparations later, they were about a block away from their target house.

The house was a little larger than Harry had thought it would be, and the second story was also much higher than he'd pictured… he couldn't guess how were they supposed to get in the window, let alone use all kinds of diagnostics spells on it.

Of course, Neil had already prepared for that. He pulled out a miniaturized ladder from the inside of his cloak once they'd gotten fairly close to the house. It was ironic that some of these Death Eater's protected their homes form all sorts of flashy magical modes of transportation when a simple enlargement charm was just as effective for breaking in unnoticed.

OoOoOoO

Neil had been at the window for a good five minutes and Harry was getting worried. The whole mission could be thrown off if their target saw them outside. Neil had said that he would have normally disillusioned the ladder and made himself invisible, but he didn't want Harry to do something stupid… like fall off of an invisible ladder. Actually, the Unspeakable had mentioned some other form of breaking in undetected that he couldn't use because Harry was tagging along as well. It had sounded really cool at the time, like walking through walls or something, but Harry wasn't paying all that much attention.

Harry's worries were relieved a few moments later when the older man made a quiet noise of triumph… he'd done it! The old Unspeakable with years of training in elite magical arts had conquered the window! Now that the easy part was over, they could face whatever challenges lie within.

When they were both inside, Neil proceeded with their prearranged plan and slipped, silently, through the door, leaving Harry alone in the small room. The room was larger than the one he'd resided in at Privet Drive, but not by much. So it was fairly hard to navigate around the bulky furniture that was in it. But besides the large bed, dresser, nightstand, and a plush chair, the room was empty. With nothing else to do Harry sat down in the chair and whipped out his wand.

When he had just started to get bored with rearranging the furniture, the old man reentered the room. It wasn't a good time for him to come in either; Harry had almost dropped the bed from where it was sticking to the ceiling when the old man startled him. Neil had placed a silencing charm on the room, so the noise wouldn't have mattered, but the Unspeakable happened to be standing directly underneath of the heavy piece of furniture.

After everything was safely back on the ground and Neil had given Harry his 'we'll talk about this later' look, the Unspeakable began giving Harry instructions.

"There's a few more than we bargained for, but I'll be able to take care of them. Follow me and whatever happens, don't attempt to confront any of them." He whispered loudly… which sort of defeated the purpose of whispering in the first place. Nevertheless, Harry followed him out into the empty hallway and down the stairs before Neil stopped him. "There are three of them in the fourth room down the hall, I detected the presence of another… but they've most likely left by now. The reading I got was rather faded. I want you to get in the room and stay hidden… once I have them subdued we'll go over everything."

Harry just nodded before setting off down the hall by himself… Neil was just watching him…

A carpet runner going down the middle of the hallway muted his footsteps, so he wasn't very worried about being caught. The house, while large, wasn't lavishly decorated. It was nothing like the Ministry… it was more like Grimmuald place, dark wood finish and old gas lanterns. The place was clean though, and the walls weren't faded, this was probably what Sirius's old home looked like when he lived in it. One thing he noticed was the lack of wall decorations, he supposed that the house either wasn't used often or whoever lived in it was just exceedingly boring.

Before he reached the fourth room, Harry made sure to _disillusion_ himself and use a localized silencing charm. They still hadn't covered the invisibility charm, which was a much more advanced version of _disillusionment_. It would have been much more useful in this situation as it didn't leave any kind of distorted afterimage. The only real drawback of the invisibility charm was that it was fairly noticeable in well-lit areas, oftentimes it would reflect some of the light and cause a glare. If somebody knew what to look for, then they'd know exactly where you were. He was getting proficient at judging when and how fast to move while under the _disillusionment _charm though, Neil had made him practice by sneaking through some of the classrooms while training was in session.

Getting in to the room was easy… because it didn't have a door. All Harry had to do was slip through the open frame and duck down behind the nearest piece of furniture. It was only a few seconds after he'd gotten settled that the show started. And Harry couldn't even see it.

All the lights in the room simultaneously extinguished… and there was no light coming from the windows either. Harry literally couldn't see his hand in front of his face, for a moment he thought that he'd gone blind. The Death Eaters seemed to be having the same problem, if the noises of people falling over various items in the room and the shouts of, "_Lumos,_" were anything to go by. After only a few seconds, the noise stopped and the light slowly faded back in. Harry didn't know how he'd done it, but Neil had bound and gagged all three Death Eaters in under ten seconds… with no light. He was standing in the middle of the room and fishing for something in his pocket and keeping his wand trained on the one Death Eater that he hadn't stunned.

Harry got up from his hiding spot and walked over to Neil, talking care to step on two of the Death Eaters on his way. "That was… what did you do?" He asked, he would have commented on how cool it was that Neil took the three out so quickly, but he didn't even see it happen.

"Darkness spell, _Totus Nox_, it's very difficult to hold it for a long time, especially when you're trying to do something else at the same time. The only flaw with it is that it's easily canceled… If these three were any smarter, then they might have tried ending the spell instead of trying to produce light." He seemed to be getting frustrated with his pocket now… He finally seemed to give up and pulled out his empty hand. "I don't have a portkey for the holding cells, I'll have to apparate them one at a time to the Department and hand them over. The house has wards against apparition, so I'll have to do it from outside. While I'm doing this, you can get started looking for anything… well, pretty much anything that looks interesting, especially if it's linked to Voldemort in some way."

With that, the older Unspeakable stunned the remaining Death Eater and began levitating them out the window. He didn't bother to set them down slowly, once they were clear of the house, he just ended the spell and let them drop. Afterwards, he hopped out the window, not bothering to jump clear of the pile of bodies… Neil seemed to harbor as much hate for Voldemort's supporters as Harry did.

Harry decided to start upstairs; he remembered what Neil had said about hiding dark artifacts in the sock drawer, so it would be worth a look. Just as he'd exited the sitting room however, he was almost immediately had to duck under a vicious silver spell that nearly took his head off! There was somebody else in the house!

He was surprised when another curse didn't immediately follow, but he took the opportunity to get a good look at his opponent.

There was a man further down the hall with his wand out. The guy was huge, possibly half the size of Hagrid, but his movements seemed rather slow. The person seemed to have realized that Harry wasn't dead and began throwing curses again. All of them were easily dodged... the guy left long periods of time between his curses for some reason. His power though, was fairly impressive. The mysterious man threw up a shield as Harry shot off a few low-level spells. He wanted to get a good idea of what he was up against before getting killed as the result of some stupid mistake.

Unluckily for Harry, the shield didn't show even the slightest of reactions to the curses. He was trying to gauge the man's power when another curse came barreling towards his head.

Harry rolled under the bright red curse… luckily it missed him; the damage to the wall behind him was pretty extensive. The man wasn't a very good duelist, he tended to wait and calculate his next move for too long, which left him open for counterattacks. Harry took advantage of the pause in the fighting to turn the situation in his favor. He knew that the shield the guy had up would block just about any spell Harry could throw at it and if he used a more powerful spell it might leave him drained. No, he needed a way to get around it.

Until he could figure out how thought, he'd have to bide his time. Harry threw a few more low level curses, at the ceiling above his opponent this time, causing plaster to rain down in fine dusty particles, before disillusioning himself. The combination of both would make him much harder to aim at.

Apparently it didn't make him hard enough to aim at however, he hastily put up a strong shield as another red curse came flying at him. The curse deflected off into stairs, leaving a sizable portion of them missing. In response to the curse, Harry rolled across the hall and began running towards the man. A moving target would present more of a challenge and closing the gap between them would make it easier for Harry to hit him. As he was running, he threw a couple of _reductos _around the man's feet, blasting planks of wood in to the air and _almost_ taking his opponent's head off… darn, so close.

The fact that he'd almost been killed didn't sit very well with the man and he began casting in earnest. About seven balls of dark purple energy flew from his wand and straight at Harry. The balls were hurtling towards him rather quickly, and he didn't want to lose any limbs, so he dove to the ground, hoping they would pass straight over him… But, to his surprise, each one altered it's course to accommodate for his movement. They were following him!

Harry quickly rolled over as the first struck the ground where he'd been laying… then the second… he was running out of room and the balls weren't disappearing, they bounced off the floor and then, like bludgers, turned back came racing after him again.

Thinking quickly, he threw another _reducto_, this time at the side of the hallway, before rolling through the hole he'd made and into a dimly lit dining area. Behind him, the wall was shaking as each ball impacted against it. Dishes rattled on the table and dust rained down from the ceiling until they finally appeared to be done chasing him.

The man didn't seem to be trying to get in… he was possibly drained from the advanced bit of magic that he'd just pulled, but Harry wasn't going to take any chances. "_Visum Ferveo_," he whispered out, whilst circling his wand in a figure eight pattern around his eyes. The result was Harry being nearly blinded by the bright colors, indicating differing levels of heat, which overtook his vision. He had practiced this spell with Neil last week for uses in situations where he might be following the older Unspeakable while he was invisible. It wasn't a particularly hard charm, but if you messed up you could end up permanently blinded… hence the reason that he was practicing under Neil's direction.

The hallway outside was practically glowing. The amount of heat given off by the spells they'd thrown at each other in the closed hallway was fairly significant, but he could still see what he'd been looking for. On the other side of the wall, the man he'd been dueling was doubled over and breathing heavily… Harry hadn't noticed how drained the man was earlier, of course he was also dodging deadly balls of energy that were attempting to lodge themselves into his head, so he wasn't surprised that he'd missed it.

After marking his opponent's place, he canceled the charm on his eyes… he didn't want to blind himself by casting any more spells; they were extremely bright as they first left your wand. Once he was ready, Harry simply cast the most destructive curse that came to his mind… directed at the spot where the other man was recovering.

The resulting explosion rocked the whole house and left an unsurprised Death Eater lying somewhere in the next room... on the other side of the hallway. Harry was pretty sure that the man would have been surprised if he weren't unconscious though.

It wasn't until the threat of attack was over, that Harry realized how much his back hurt. Apparently, when one of the walls had exploded, he'd gotten fairly torn up. He hadn't even fully calculated the extensiveness of the damage before his fatigue caught up with him and he blacked out on the floor.


	15. Woes at Work

Disclaimer: Anything you recognise from the books is not mine.  
Author's note: Sorry for the really long break, I lost interest in writing after I moved and just recently decided to start working on this again. This chapter is tiny but, it's all I could cook up at the moment. I still plan to complete this fic, but give me some time for updates, my life gets pretty busy at college.

* * *

Harry became conscious.

There was a whole, blissful second, full of silence and comforting darkness… and then the pounding in his head caught up with him. If the pain was a good thing, it was only because it made Harry realize that he wasn't actually dead. Really, what kind of twisted world would it be if you got stuck with a permanent headache in the afterlife. Of course, what kind of twisted world would rely on him to defeat a Dark Lord.

Pounding head aside, Harry was actually fairly comfortable, almost as if he was laying in a soft bed and not the hard wood floor he'd passed out on...

He let his hand trail over the... soft, cushiony, ... hardwood floor.

Yeah, defiantly not where he'd been before. But he knew on thing for sure, he wasn't in the clutches of Voldemort. For starters, he doubted that the Dark Lord even had such a nice bed, it was like sleeping on a cloud. Not that Harry had ever slept on one before, that wasn't physically possible, though he supposed that magic might be of use if he'd ever like to try it. Bu the point was, Harry couldn't imagine Voldemort, feared Dark Lord, coming home after a long night of torturing muggles and laying down in a soft, fluffy cloud... err bed.

Harry tried to stop himself from picturing Voldemort curled up with a large teddy bear atop of some frilly pink bed sheets, suckling on his thumb and making high pitched nasal sounds as he softly snored... but it was no use.

Harry wasn't sure if anyone else was in the room as he hadn't regained his sanity enough to open his eyes yet, but if there was then they were probably fairly startled when he started laughing uproariously out of nowhere. The thought of Voldemort getting wearing a nighty and getting tucked in by Lucius Malfoy was just too much to bear. He actually feared for the wizarding world, they were placing all of their hopes in Harry Potter, a deranged lunatic.

...but deranged as he was, he had still learned a bit throughout the years. One thing in particular struck out at him now... He had eyes, eyes with which he could see. And if he could see, then he may be able to figure out where was! Now if only they would work... not supposed to be all black like thi- ...

He decided to ask Neil to oblivate that part of his internal monologue at a later time... though preferably sooner rather than later.

Harry groaned...

Before, his vision had been all black, now all he was receiving was a painful bright white. Not exactly how he'd hoped to come out of unconsciousness, but at least he could see, well... he knew he could see black and white, everything in between was still a bit iffy. Things seemed to be getting better quickly though, so he was hopeful. As everything became… less… bright, he started to get a bit worried. That is, until he remembered that he wore glasses. Glasses which weren't currently on his face, making the bright room he was in even harder to picture. So he wasn't prepared for the woman to walk up beside him and say, "good evening Mr. Potter." His response was a small jump, an odd speaking noise… and he sort of… fell off the bed, causing a slight thump.

He couldn't see, but he could hear the woman chuckling from the other side of the bed. The evil woman, laughing at his misfortune, the laugh suddenly sounded more sinister than before… How could she be so… mean…

Harry woke up again.

This time the light wasn't so overbearing when he opened his eyes, and the room wasn't so quiet. In fact, the room was fairly noisy. Little beeps and whistles were the more dominant sounds, but he could hear the far off roar of a large crowd as well. And footsteps, he could hear footsteps as well. Footsteps… what was it that Neil had told him about listening for footsteps…

Harry's eyes widened and his pulse quickened as he ducked under the cover for a moment. His wand wasn't on him, that much he could tell, and his glasses seemed to be missing. He was defenseless, but he'd been in such situations before, now was not the time to panic…

The bed sheets flew off in a swirling vortex, erupting upwards and slamming against the ceiling. Dust and fluffy padding rained down in a blizzard of comfortable softness, and the wall in front of him was… not moving. There Harry stood, in an overdramatic martial arts stance that he'd seen on TV once, a fluffy white halo of down feathers drifting lazily to the ground about him, and facing an empty wall… And it was laughing at him.

Wait… walls didn't laugh.

But Neil did… he laughed a lot. He was a very cruel person. "Settle down kid, no death eaters here," He said in between laughs. "I want you to meet me outside once they're done with you here so that we can talk about where you screwed up… and for Merlin's sake!" Apparently he had become frustrated with the feathery rain… which was trying valiantly to lodge itself in Neil's nose. A quick repairing charm later and his mentor was out of the room, leaving a still slightly dazed Harry behind.

Almost as soon as Neil had left though, the nurse who Harry had first met a few weeks ago when he'd first joined the department came bustling in. She was actually a bit frightening… had a crazed look in her eye. Harry guessed that she must take her work as seriously Madam Promfey back at school… and that thought also scared him a bit.

"Mr. Potter," she sounded a lot like McGonagall, "I don't know how you do it. I've never seen someone hurt this many times before they've been here even a month in all my days. Tell me, what possessed you to duel while in that condition? We could have made the bed you're sleeping on from what we pulled from your back!" And… yes, she was screaming at him now. Harry's headache flared up again in response… weren't healers supposed to make you feel better?

Harry tried to reason with her, "well mam, I… uhh… didn't know I was hurt that bad?" He smiled at the end of his imploring statement, hoping it might catch her off guard. He was disappointed.

"Oh, don't you try that on me Mr. Potter. I've heard every excuse in the book," and the way she said it… Harry believed that she most likely had heard them all. "Let me check you over and then I want you out of here, I never want to see you in here again!"

Harry just sighed and lay back down, resigned to his fate. The healer, Madam Salma as he'd learned from her nametag, dutifully checked him over for any overlooked injuries. After a few minutes she too sighed, "well, that's it… unless you'll let me take a look at your scar. I'm very interested in it…," she trailed off.

Harry thought about it, it couldn't hurt to let her look, but what was the point? He already knew that there was nothing to be done for it. Dumbledore himself had told him as much… Harry really didn't like the idea of wasting the healer's time, no matter how fascinated she was with his scar. ""I honestly think that it's a waste of time Miss," he sighed, "I don't think I'd like to go through that right now."

She huffed and nodded in a brisk manner, "very well, you are free to go now Mr. Potter… but know that you are denying us a valuable source of research. Curse scars are not a common thing at all and even with our seemingly limitless information, we know very little about them." With that she turned around a quickly made her way from the room.

Harry sighed again and thought that maybe he should have accepted her offer.

* * *

Harry was happy to be out of Neil's evil clutches. Honestly, he didn't think he'd done too bad considering his limited experience… of course Neil thought differently. There was a long list of thing that Harry was supposed to have done differently… literally. Neil had written down a list of what he'd screwed up and given it to him to study. That was fine with Harry though, it meant that he could tune his aggravated mentor out while being yelled at. Right now he just wanted to get something to eat and go home, his afternoon tutoring session had been delayed due to the mission… it just meant double torturing tomorrow.

Harry grabbed some lunch and sat down at his usual table. The room was fairly empty today, which wasn't really an odd occurrence lately with all of the large projects going on.

He was used to eating with Allison and Walter, but they'd probably already come and gone. Walter had surprised Harry one day by getting into a short scuffle with Cutler. Apparently they'd been at odds since the first training exercise where Harry and Walter were in the same group. Ever since then, they had gotten to know each other better and turned out to be friends. Of course, Cutler wouldn't associate with Walter when he found out, but it wasn't a high price to pay. Cutler was just an immature little brat anyways, though nobody could deny he had power under the right circumstances.

It was a bit of an odd coincidence that he happened to be thinking of Cutler… because he happened to be headed straight for Harry from across the dining area… and he didn't look very happy, not that he ever looked happy in close proximity to Harry. For a moment Harry imagined how funny it would be if the enraged young man tripped on his way over… he could almost see Cutler sprawled out on the ground whilst everyone in the room snickered behind his back… he even went as far as to imagine Fordon crying and running out of the room like an embarrassed preteen.

Of course it didn't happen, which made Harry a little sad. Though he was pretty sure that the large smile plastered on his face had unnerved, the now slightly bewildered looking, Cutler Fordon. "Uh, yes?" Harry questioned when the young unspeakable was close enough.

He grunted and ignored Harry's question all together, "Listen kid, you may think you're hot stuff, but don't let a little praise go to your head. You are nothing," Cutler whispered angrily, "just because you're famous, for an unfinished job at that, you don't have the right to come in here and be waited on hand and foot." Then Cutler did something unexpected, he smiled, "I know what happened earlier, maybe that will open your eyes. You thought you were good enough and look where you ended up."

Harry'd had enough of Cutler's badmouthing, the kid couldn't get it through his head that he wasn't trying to show anyone up, he was just doing what he could, "You don't know anything then. I took down an unexpected target and I've only had a few weeks of training. If I'd been here for two years like you have, then you could talk." Harry knew that wouldn't be the end of it, but he really hoped Cutler would just go away.

"...that's it, you better watch your back from now on kid. If you're stupid enough to believe that you're on our level… well you'll just have to figure it out the hard way," and with that Cutler stormed off. Harry thought it was a bit sad that the unspeakable had ended up resorting to idle threats, but there wasn't anything to be done. Eventually Cutler's attitude would catch up with him and he would learn a little humility.

…and now his appetite was ruined.


End file.
